September 12th I decided to throw my hat into the Provincial Time Trail (TT) championships for the 30-39 age division. This meant a few things:
- I would have to change the position on my Cervelo P3 to make it legal with the Union Cyclist Internationale (UCI) rules. These caveman of the UCI have put major restrictions on equipment and fit so as not to provide, what they believe, is an unfair advantage to lesser countries/athletes financial means. Recently what this has meant is that master athletes or triathletes like myself could have equipment deemed illegal for UCI races but perfectly legal for triathlon and in fact we would have to spend MORE money to make things legal. For me, this mean buying a $70 stem to bring the bars closer to my body, cutting my aero bars by 3 cms to bring them closer to my body, and then moving my seat back 5cms to make the fit legal. Consequence is the fit is far tighter and more uncomfortable then the triathlon position I have been riding for 10 years.
- I was going to hurt, A LOT, for about 50 minutes.
I was hoping to get a spot on the podium for our team sponsors as a special thanks for all their support this year. I arrived far too early but had some groove tunes to keep me occupied, warmed up for an hour on the trainer, got the bike dialed in with a Zipp 808 front and disc wheel on the back, strapped on my aero helmet and hit the start. Funny story:
There was a rider that was a bit of a character (will remain nameless). At start they were calling my number for bike check so I went to front of line and got my bike checked to ensure the fit I did was legal, then walked through. 5 minutes later said guy came through and I realized I had just totally budded in front of him for bike check. So I said, "Oh crap dude, I just totally budded you for bike check. Sorry, I thought they were calling me forward there mate.." To which he replied, "Well, you should be" and then turned his back to me. I said nothing (hard for me I know!) internalizing my revenge out on the course.
So I hit the start line and reminded myself this is 38km's of suffering for about 50 minutes. I need to breath controlled, suffer like a dog, but not blow up before the end! My start was smooth and I instantly found a groove and felt pretty good. We had a headwind on the way out and coming to the turnaround my diaphram started to cramp, I eased up and breathed deeply to let the cramp subsided for a few hundred meters before the turn; smoothly took corner, sucked back a gel and some water then flew with the now tailwind. I was catching my guy up front slowly but surely but still was unsure how my ride was. I know I was suffering badly and that this pain was only temporary!
I caught my minute man (same guy as funny story above) and when I caught him with 5kms to go and REALLY hammered by him and dropping him, he drafted me and then 2 minutes later he was cutting the apex of a corner beside me. This goes on for another 4kms while I do everything to stay legal and eventually he has more oomph at end and rolls forward to finish just ahead of me. It ends up he was parked beside me so I walk by and give him a little thumbs up and he says NOTHING. Wow, I thought; taking this all a little seriously aren't we? Where's the fun dude!
I was really spent and my hip flexors were a mess thanks to the UCI legal position but overall I felt "OK" with my ride. Not stellar, but not too bad.
I came 4th, the dreaded 4th, by a whopping 0.13 seconds! OUCH! Average speed was 43.1km/hr
Last stop on the 2010 cycling season is the Blue Mountains Centurion.
Thanks for checking in!
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