Time Trial Bike

Last night I hit the Rehoboth TT for the fifth time this season. The event would have ended a few weeks ago, but with all the rainouts, they've extended the season through next week (which btw will be for solo again, not two-man teams the way they traditionally end the year). Anyway, last week was one of the rain cancellations. I'd misunderstood the series rules, thinking that they took your best time of the year, and as long as you attended five or more nights you'd be eligible for prizes. Just wanting to test the D2R2 bike, I took that down, but of course nobody except me and one other guy showed, even though the sun was out by race time. And I was wrong about the scoring; turns out they take the total of your best five weeks. I learned this after once again heading down last night on the CX bike, this time just for the hell of it, and because it was the closest bike to the door. At least I have next week to try one more time on the TT bike.

So how did it go? Much better than expected. My best this year on the TT bike was the lone time I raced it, 18:42 for the 8 mile (13.2k) "P" shaped course. The other three efforts were cannibal, with first being 20:04 or something, and the other two being in the very low 19s. With my Michelin Jets pumped up to 80 psi, I was expecting to ride maybe 22 minutes on this tank. To my surprise, it was faster than that, even though the giant cassette cluster's two tooth jumps was clearly leaving me between gears. Doing most of it in the third and fourth cogs (these are either 15/17 or 14/16, not sure) and the 46T big ring, I stopped the clock in 20:26, just a shade under 23.5 mph (37.8 kph) average. Maybe I grabbed a few seconds draft here or there off the occasional passing car or rider, but nonetheless I impressed myself!


WTF is this all about?


The Nashua Velo Club newsletter editors were obviously spelling-bee champs.

Last but not least, from deep in the archives we have proof that the Cronoman used to be able to occasionally beat me in a time trial. This was before he busted his shoulder and went the alternative medicine route for treatment (drink fifty cans of seltzer water and race four months worth of cyclocross), subsequently pioneering the "crescent moon/fasterbackwards" TT position (photo coming if I can ever find it. Thanks for reading.