So yesterday everything fell in place for my first time trial, as well as my team’s first time trial. The weather was a bit iffy with some darker clouds looming overhead but all of the 60+ time trial participants made it through dry. (The weather did pour a bit on the way home and last night).

So first a little back story. Typically, my team, the Tri-Cyclists has hosted their annual race in Chapel Hill, NC’s Meadowmont neighborhood. But the neighborhood installed speed bumps this year, pretty much eliminating it from being a criterium location anymore for our team.

So this year, we changed gears and locales out near one of the Trikes’ homes in Mebane, NC. We setup an individual time trial out at the Iron Gate Winery and it was a blast. Basically the time trial course was a 10.7 mile loop originating out in front of the Winery. The elder Trikes (elder in terms of membership, not necessarily calendar age) really had everything setup smoothly to run and time the whole event.

The course was great – three turns and two hills. I was up and over the first hill without any effort and the second was the only part that was at all zapping. I felt great and my fitness is starting to really hit high levels. On the flat back stretch, it felt wonderful every time I passed a slower rider. I think I ended up passing 6 people on that back stretch, and never got caught by any riders behind me. I didn’t look behind, but I know going into the third turn the next Trike behind me wasn’t in sight.

I ended up coming over the finish at over 30 miles per hour and averaged 22.34 miles per hour over the entire race. Originally, they had me in the wrong age category, which sucked, as I was 2nd overall in that original age bracket. Instead, I ended up 9th in my age category and 25th overall – still not freaking bad. Top 10 in 30-39 and 25 out of all the men who participated! While that first report of me being 2nd in the younger age bracket had me beaming, I still feel like I rocked my first Time Trial, flying through the 10.7 mile course faster than I’ve ever averaged before. In local training, I think the closest my Garmin has ever reported was like 20.7. The aerobars definitely helped and I was able to stay in them through the entire race, save the three corners.

I feel good too cause I did better than a lot who were tricked out in time trial bikes, TT helmets etc. My only TT addition were the clip on aerobars. I am definitely feeling my fitness coming around and am looking forward to the rest of this race season – time trials, crits and road races.

I definitely see more time trials in the future. My goal of 10 or more races this year is going well. I’ve now got four under my belt – Wolfpack, Food Lion City Park Crit, Downtown Winston Salem Crit and now my team’s sponsored time trial. Next week, our 2008 team kits arrive, though it’s really cool to already have raced in four events.

My Time Trial(missing first mile)

Overall Male Time Trial Results & Statistics

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Cycling, Local (Raleigh Durham), Personal Crap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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