UW Whitewater 20K TT
July 5, 2009 –Whiterwater, IL
Masters 4/5 – 3rd – 29:11.02
281 watts – 25.0 MPH

Ah, the Fourth of July weekend.  Time for family, friends, BBQs, fireworks, and time trials.  Time trials?  That’s right, no holiday weekend is complete without a TT!

Uh, right.  I was expecting a small crowd for the UW Whitewater TT. While crits are spectator-friendly races where you can bring the whole family, TTs pretty much are a bore unless you’re racing. I thought there might be 40-50 riders, but was shocked when we pulled into the parking lot on Sunday AM. The registration line along had about 50 people in it! Gee, don’t these people have anything better to do? Apparently not when you need WI Cup point.  Aha! Now the crowds make sense.

I don’t think anyone was complaining, since the start times began at noon and it was beautiful, sunny day with temps in the low 80s.   The long registration line reminded of one of the most important things for cyclists to do…fill out your waiver BEFORE the race! Rose and I got start times next to each other and gave us about an hour before our race to warm-up.

Oh, yeah, Rose.  One of the reasons for doing this race was to give Rose some TT practice before her first duathlon.  The course was only 20K and a good way to experience threshold pacing on the bike. I knew she was nervous since it was her first bike race, but I think I was even more nervous for her.  I only got about 3-4 hours of sleep the night before because I was so anxious. Ironically, it was nice to a change to focus my energy on someone’s race, rather than my own. I was in more of coach mode going over the nuances of cycling TTs, the rules, and how to warm-up with her.

Our start times came and we were soon off. The roads were in great shape, but the number of corners made it technically challenging. With 23 corners, I almost felt as if I were in a crit.  A few had lots of gravel, but the organizers had at least made a good effort to clear them.  There were also marshals and police at all of the key corners. I was actually amazed at how fast the race went.  There was stronger wind then I had expected (picked the wrong Hed wheel again), but I was too focused on the turns to really notice.  I caught lots of folks on the way out and just hammered it with the tailwind in the return.

The biggest surprise of the race were a couple of short, 10% grade hills less than 800 m from the finish.  Oh, those weren’t fun to ride (but it was fun to watch others finish up there later). I had registered for a second race later, but decided one was enough since this was supposed to be more of a workout, rather than a race.

I ended up finishing 3rd in Masters 4/5 beyond two other usual suspects from the Chicago TT scene, Reed Oliff and Brian Akers. Our IL contingent actually swept the podium ahead of the WI racers. That’s always a good feeling, especially when this was a critical race for many of the WI riders. I thought my speed was OK, but I put out much higher power than I had my past couple races (my wheel selection and corners slowed me down).

Still, a very fun race, especially since it was only 20K!