Fiesta Island 20K TT
September 11, 2011 – San Diego, CA
Masters 30+ – 2nd – 28:08:00
275 watts – 26.5 MPH

The 2011-2012 SoCal TT season officially kicked off today with the Fiesta Island 20K TT. Yes, it’s the start of the cyclocross season and also the start of the TT season. That sounds so weird to me. I guess it will take a couple of years to get used to it.

I did the Fiesta Island TT a couple of years ago, when we were visiting San Diego. At the time, I had a standard road bike and it was super windy. Today, I had my full TT rig and near perfect conditions. The race was completely sold out and we had to get to the start around 6 AM in order to pick up our numbers. Rose went about 20 minutes before me, which gave me plenty of time to warm-up. It was still somewhat dark out, and I wish I had a rear blinking light. Oh, well, something to remember for next time.

The Fiesta Island course is approximately a 4 mile loop that your do 3 times for 20K. There is no wind protection and is nearly completely flat. There are a few tight turns that seem as if you need to take them slow, but you can really take them quickly in the TT bars. It took my one loop to get used to the course.

I had very little expectations for my time. I mostly wanted to have a decent race with good power output. I got passed by my 30 second man with 1 lap to go, which helped since I had someone to chase. I was exhausted at the finish and had no idea what my pace was, but really didn’t care since I was happy with my effort. Rose and I stuck around for the results. I ended up getting second in the Masters 30+ group with an average speed of 26.5 MPH, which is a personal record for that distance.

Very happy with my performance, especially since I haven’t done much TT training. I also now have a benchmark for the course.

It’s going to take me a few more races this fall to get acclimated to racing TTs this time of year, but I’m not complaining.