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June 10 - District Time Trial Championships
Race info
Results
Start times:
Link
Photography:
Michael Hernandez, SAFEWAY/GA Communications, AKA Directeur Sportif for Velo Bella-Kona
Reports:
Ted Brooks, Synergy Racing/Lamorinda Cycling Club
2007 District Time Trial Championships (50+)
24.9 miles, 25.4 avg, max 33.8, 58:36 (6th place)
I'm hoping someone got the license number of the truck that ran me over in Sattley - or at least that's how I felt the next day. There's no doubt I spent all of my lunch money in the District Championships Time Trial in beautiful Sattley, CA (population 60).
Teammate Bob Miller and I met up in Truckee so we could get a look at the course. He went up a day earlier and drove it. Flat, beautiful, dead calm. So Saturday morning, he takes an easy ride on the course. Same, other than the big expansion joints he noticed in the roadway which begin to drive you nuts after a bit.
I arrived Saturday early afternoon, and we went to the course to get a pre-race workout in. Seems the wind had found it's way there, so our workout was pretty windy. But, we figured by going off and finishing by 11:00, we should be ok. Also, I found the "sweet spot" of the road over the expansion joints - priceless.
The earliest racers did indeed have the dead calm, but by about 9:00 or so the wind picked up pretty good (20 mph according to MotionBased), and with a start time of 9:56, I was going to get the brunt of it.
I had focused my training for this race, had studied the competition (including winner Robert Anderson of AMD, national and state TT champion many times), and had it figured that I needed somewhere around 55 minutes to be in the very top, based on the last few years.
It is an out-and-back course, and so with a tailwind much of the way out, I hit the 1/4 point at around 12 minutes, and the halfway point at about 25 minutes - well under my 55 minute target. I took the first 10k fairly easy, kicked it up a notch for the next 10k, passing my 30 seconds and 1 minute men by the turnaround. I came into the turnaround very fast, and slid the rear tire while stopping (scary on a TT bike with a disc).
Once I did the turn, I was now facing the wind for the rest of the ride back. I had planned to kick up the pace a bit more on the 3rd 10k, but the wind was so strong, I decided to conserve some energy for the final 10k. My 30-second guy passed me. It was tempting, but I kept my pace, knowing that there was plenty of time for pain, as we were tilting sideways from the wind now.
Once I hit about 19 miles, I kicked it up with all I had, again passing my 30 second man. I kept it nailed as I saw my 55 minutes slowly drifting away. I kept going hard, focusing on keeping a good aero position in the strong wind. As I neared the finish (a truly beautiful sight) I passed a guy who had started about 10 minutes ahead of me (must have been a real hard day for him).
I checked my computer, and saw that I was in at about 58:45 or so. Lots of people were talking about doing over an hour, so I thought maybe I had done fairly well.
Turns out I placed 6th, at 58:36; 3:34 behind the winner.
I'm pleased with my result, thanks to our sponsors, equipment, team and coaching. My best-ever TT result.
Link to race data
Ted Brooks
Il Presidente, Synergy Racing/Lamorinda Cycling Club
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