Question Mark

As if I needed any more confirmation that the racing season starts earlier and earlier, last night I did the Charlie Baker Time Trial, put on by the Northeast Bike Club in Concord, MA, since like, forever. But it's only May 6; weeknight TTs are supposed to be the stuff midsummer night's dreams are made of. Whatever, at least it was a warmish spring evening. I was working in Framingham during the day, so the drive over was relatively painless. With a little more daylight, I think I could easily ride there from work and still make it back to the 'ham afterward, so maybe I'll try that later this summer.

NEBC is highly organized. The TT website includes all kinds of details about where to park, where to pee, how to sign in, etc. They even have pictures for those of marginal literacy. Of course, I'd been to this event before a decade or two ago, so I ignored all this, parked in the wrong lot (who knew the Old North Bridge had two parking lots?). Did a warmup lap of the course with this kid Jerome from IF, who also parked in the wrong lot. Jerome just sits totally PRO on his bike. I'm used to riding with fat, high-barred masters who don't look so poised in the saddle... We finished our familiarization lap and then wondered why there was nobody else in the lot and no registration table visible, but eventually we figured out that everything was on the other side of the river, about a mile from the course. This was due to the New North Bridge being closed for rebuilding and thus about to become the even Newer North Bridge. We got there in time though, and they even had a riders meeting.

I can't really say I warmed up properly, just the pre-lap and a few jumps, but no real efforts. They seemed to be running late too, because when I rolled to staging I should have had very short wait but there were over twenty riders queued up to go off at 30 second intervals. The race org is very uptight about riders warming up in the road near staging because it's a high traffic area and the townies are already pissy about continuing to permit this event, so I was a good doobee and just stood there like everybody else, getting cold and de-prepped for ten minutes before toeing the line. With all the waiting, I uncharacteristically forgot to start my timer, which I normally do when my minute person rolls off. I remembered about a kilometer into it, oh well.

The course is fast. The first four miles are almost totally flat. The road is not that wide and traffic is moderate, so you get a little draft. Now to the question mark. As you can see on the results, I have a question mark in the "aero/non-aero" column. I can only presume that the start line dude with the clipboard gives you the once over and makes a decision whether you are "aero" or "non-aero." I was riding my new Madone exactly as it came out of the box, no clipons. Now, I don't think you could ever call yourself "cannibal" unless you're riding a steel frame and box-section tubular wheels, so my carbon monocoque and bladed spoke, 30mm alloy rim wheels (hard for me to believe my new "heavy" clinchers have only 16 spokes) clearly does not qualify. But I was rockin' the vintage Ekimov Panasonic-Sportlife jersey, no skinsuit. I can only guess that my slightly aero wheels and taped up helmet (which is a triple duty modification for warmth, bug protection, and aerodynamics) left my aero/non-aero status in question.

So anyway, wanting to work on my pacing, I did not go out too hard. I'm not used to running an 11/23 cassette, so when I got to four cogs over I was thinking I was in the 50x15 but it's really the 14. On my TT bike all aero I usually try to turn a 54x15 or 14 on the flats. I like to TT at 95-100 rpm. There are a few little rollers down at the end of the first stretch, so I did shift up and down a few times, but did not stand up at all. I was wearing my HRM on my wrist, so I could not read it while riding in the drops, and did not have any speed sensors. At the four mile mark the course goes through the Carlisle rotary before heading downhill a bit. Then there was some wind on the flatter stretch of Route 225. I was hurting here and maybe I backed off too much. Jerome had started two riders behind me, thus one minute back, and between us at 30 seconds was another kid riding cannibal. It's great to see good riders hitting the TT's on road bikes. The way life should be...

So the other kid, who I think is EVC, passes me on 225, so he's taking 4 seconds/kilometer out of me. I hate to ever pass anyone back in a TT, as if they catch you for that much then they're clearly faster. But this guy slowed down a lot after he went by. Hey, it happens. Sometimes the carrot motivates you to push a little too hard. Plus, I was perhaps underpacing a bit, hoping for a strong second half.

I passed him back. Not wanting to be a PITA dick, I went harder, asserting myself as much as possible so as not to get in his way. I pulled out the required 30 meter gap. This kid was obviously a real racer and there was never any chance of me taking my 30 seconds back, and with some big rollers on the final stretch I figured he'd blow back by me again. Which he did, but not until pretty close to the end. Both of us died a bit on the longest roller, but he pulled out 8-10 seconds by the finish. Afterward I apologized for passing him back, but he said no problem, as I pushed it hard and I think he drew some extra effort out of having to continue chasing me. Jerome never caught me but this self-described "poor time trialist" still beat me handily, so I think I was 4th among the night's "non-aero/?" group. In the results archives, there are some unbelievable non-aero times. I'd like to go back again, sub-23 seems like a reasonable non-aero goal, or at least solidly on the other side of 40 kph average. Maybe on a steel frame and box wheels.

When I got home I had an email from Colin that he'd sent late in the work day, asking if I was going to the Dover TT. Doh! Dover only runs once a month, and I was thinking it was the second Wednesday, not the first. The Dover guy does not charge an entry fee, so I could have saved $10. NEBC does a good job though, and the fields they get over the course of the summer are much deeper, so as a performance benchmark it's probably the best TT in the area. You should try it at least once this summer. Thanks for reading.