LaPlace Report

In team time trials, your performance usually falls into one of two roles, that of pilot or baggage. Saturday morning, i worked hard at being the former but ended up spending a fair amount of time as the latter.

In our warmup i could tell Norm was on for another good day, and i was feeling flat having not ridden much lately. All i could hope was that i'd feel better as the ride went on. I think in my second pull my foot came out the pedal which was foreshadowing on the sloppiness to come.

The wind wasn't strong but it was cross for just about the whole out-and-back flatter-than-IHOP's-finest course. The first few miles we managed at 23-24, then it just went up for the rest of the ride. Norm was doing a number on my psyche, it started off with pulls a mph faster than me, then they went up 2-3 mph more than i could put out there. This threw off our balance, so i had to shorten mine to keep the pace up.

Maybe around mile 10, Troy and Frank passed us for 2 minutes. Little did i know that they were on pace for an eye-popping 51:59. By the time we hit the turn around i wanted to quit. After getting caught and my lame pulls i just knew we were stinking up the course. In between tossing up my breakfast and negotiating with the side stitch i was wondering how much i could get for my tt bike on ebay.

I guess around mile 18 or so, i cracked more. My pulls were way far apart, they'd start around 28 and finish at 26. Norm was keeping it 28-and-up for what seemed like minutes at a time. My cadence was all over the place 82-100. Anything to be there, I was reaching. FINALLY the line came and i had no idea what to expect, i clicked my computer and saw 56:26 which blew me away, that's why i felt so damn bad.

Officially 56:20. Having seen what that takes now in a 2-man, i've got new respect for anyone who does it by themselves. It's our second 3rd place of the year and the second time i've scored points in the LAMBRA 1,2 category and gotten zero which is a bummer but making money in tt's is nice so who cares.

I hit the velodrome tonight and my legs are just fried, they didn't really feel bad until i got back on the bike. We'll see what the week brings...