STAGE THREE: Time Trial
An eight mile time trial first thing Sunday morning isn’t that that bad. Despite some paranoid dreams I had that evening where I was was running late for my start time because I decided to ride my time trial bike (which I don't actually have one - remember, this is a dream) to the bar where some ass-hole locked their bike to mine and left it there. Meaning, I couldn't leave the bar and I couldn't race my bike. Since that never actually happened in real life, I viewed the Time Trial as this tiny little thing that stood between me and my favorite event, Stage Four, the Crit. I told myself that the TT was pretty much like doing my morning bike commute to downtown, but instead of just getting to work and going to my desk, it's as if I realized I forgot something at home... so then I'd have to hightail it back to Northeast as fast as I possibly could. So, providing that there wasn’t going to be any stop lights or cars to impede the process... nor a massive Timbuk2 bag to haul with, hipsters on fixed gears or mommies on extracycles in my way... a time trial should be relativity simple.
The secret to the TT is not getting passed while passing as many people as you can that are riding ahead of you. Some people are time trial specialists... I am not. I saw the time trial as a way to “do better” than last year, but still save a little energy for the Crit that was to take place several hours afterwards. Granted, the crit isn’t going to bridge any 3 minute time deficit in the General Classification Scoring.. but at the same time, I’m not fast enough in a time trial that it’s gonna make a huge difference either.
One of my Bridgetown Velo teammates Caitlin, is a time trialist. They are one of her favorite aspects of bike racing and therefore, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when I saw her heading the opposite way of the start line several minutes prior to her race. Hmm,... I thought, why is Caitlin going that way? Shouldn’t she be heading to the start? But, she looked determined in her quick cadence to the wrong place, so I figured she knew what she was doing and didn't flag her down. That, and another friend of mine, Eryn Barker, was also heading the same way as Caitlin. Perhaps the both of them had some last minute warm up thing planned? Who knows? So, I checked the current time on my cell phone (which I had stashed in the back pocket of my jersey - I’m not that fast to where my little LG is going to matter on wind resistance) and went to the start with a few minutes to spare. Once I got got there, I still didn't see Caitlin, who was to race five minutes before I. I heard the officials call out her and Eryn’s name several times... but still... nothing. A minute or so later they called my name and I made my way to the start behind a few other riders. Suddenly, right before my start, Caitlin and Eryn finally showed up. Thankfully, they let them start and just added the amount of time they were gone to their overall time as opposed to not just letting them go, which would have sucked balls (that is my honest opinion).
Within a minute, it was my time to go. I pulled up to the line and they held my bike as I clipped in. They counted down to 8:10am... the man signing me off asked how I was doing? “I’m doing great, thanks for asking. How are YOU doing today?” I replied “I’m good he said” “Good” I responded... 5...4...3...2...1 and I was off. I had a nice little burst out of the saddle to get me up to speed and then it was all about settling into the time trial bars and regulating my pace. I think I might have tried to push too hard off the start. I had a nice little jump on the girl that had been released thirty seconds prior to me and my check backs on the girl that was released thirty seconds after me (Amy Shepard) seemed to be pretty steady. Before too long I closed in and passed the rider ahead of me. Ahead of her was Eryn and I was closing in... thankfully, the distance with Amy seemed to be holding, so all I had to do was keep plugging away. However, about this time a nice little gradual change in elevation was happening and I was trying not to expend too much to climb it or let my speed slow down too much. Then, out of no where I hear this sound like some electronic thing is going to blow up or self destruct. “What the fuck was that?” I thought... “when did my legs start making electronic noises when they got tired?” .... and it was then that I remembered that my cell phone was in my back pocket and was seemingly, dying a slow and loud death. Good thing it’s just me out here...
So, I carried on.
The fact that I hadn’t seen any of the riders released ahead of me come back my way yet was a little unsettling... “damn” I though, “how long is this out and back course?’ I mean, you want to go as fast as you can, but you don’t want to go as fast as you can and then die with a few miles left to go. Eventually, I passed Eryn and then saw my teammate Caitlin ahead of me. “Maybe I can catch her... “ I thought. All the while, the slow and steady rise was still happening and I could tell that Shepard was closing in on me from behind. I started to see riders come the opposite way so I knew I was getting closer to the turn around. Eventually, Amy Shepard breezed past me from behind and took Caitlin right before the turn around. I was still hoping to catch up to Caitlin, but the course reversed in elevation and she and Shepard were pretty much gone in a downhill frenzy by that point.
(this person is way faster than I am, also... their bike cost more money than mine did.)
I pretty much just tried to charge full speed ahead knowing that the time trial was more than over. Every once and while around a bend I could see a glimpse of BTV Orange from Caitlin, but I was never really close enough to catch her. I saw the last bits of the Cat4 women pass the other way and some of us exchanged friendly smiles from across the road. Then, some of the Cat3 women passed by as well as our Cat4 men and I gave them a little cheer to add some pep to their legs.
Finally the finish tent appeared on the horizon and boom. Just like that, I was done. My back and forth commute taking all of 30 minutes and 13:90 seconds (it normally takes me anywhere from 15-20 minutes one way for my commute to and from work, so I guess my TT time wasn’t too far off, at least I’m consistent.) Last year I was roughly 6 minutes behind the Stage Winner, but this year only about three minutes. Overall, I got 14th which, in comparison to my other results so far this weekend (17th in both road races), was the best yet. So, when folks asked me how it went... not too bad. I passed some folks and I got passed my some folks. Overall, not too shabby... but it could use some work. The best part of getting this stage over with, was the simple fact that I just had one more stage left to do, my favorite stage... the Crit. Just 25 minutes of going around in circles and then I could pack up and pack it in and go home.
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