1st time trial

bikeguy said:

Did my first TT last week saturday in the open men's class which included a few finnish national class riders.
The course was 40 km with about 120 metres of climbing, most of it in a big hump in the middle. Rode a standard road bike in the drops, averaged 36.4 km/hr. I placed 12th out of 21 riders. The best time was 54:20 (44.2 km/hr) or so for the 1st guy who passed me while I was riding. Two other guys passed me, everybody on aerobars. I didn't pass anybody.. 🙁. I didn't have time to check out the course fully beforehand, but had a course profile to go on, so I knew about the hills in the middle. That was the worst part, three sections that went up with false flats inbetween. I was really suffering here.

I had a bit of fun when I took a right turn at 39 km/hr and the guy at the intersection stopping the traffic was like whoaaaa!!! Hehehe...

I only warmed up for about 15 minutes before the race (didn't feel like getting up early, took an hour to drive to the competition) and I felt like I was starting to roll only during the last 2 km but I'm happy with my time.

Will be doing a 120 km road race this Sunday. It should be fun!

-Bikeguy

good job, thats a nice pace!

Hey frenchcycling, thanks for the reply.

I have a race report too.

My RR (1st one) didn't go so well, there was a variable wind of 20-50 km/hr. I was in for 5 km and the pack had changed speeds from 30-50 km/hr 3 times, when it slowed down to 30 again, I made a mistake of solo charging to the front (heading for the front baby!) then my "coach" told me to slow down, so I did and got dropped when the pack immediately sped up at this point. For about a couple clicks I was actually holding speed with the pack solo, but I couldn't close the gap, my legs were fatigued.
I passed 4 other guys who got dropped, and after 28 km after losing sight of the bunch I figured doing 120 km solo after 5 days of diarrhea wasn't such a good idea and pulled out of the race.

I can try again in two weeks. One of the guys that finished in the second pack I outdid in the time trial last week, so I know I have the power. Just have to pay attention. I was also really surprised, as I had been told that finnish racers usually start off slow, so was really wondering what all this 50 km/hr+ into a headwind was about at the start.

-Bikeguy