Friday, February 25, 2011

Callville Classic Time Trial


Today's stage was a short TT more like a prologue than an actual TT. The course climbed 800+ feet in about 3.5 miles not supper steep but considering it had a couple of descents it was a challenging course. The thing that made today interesting was the 35+ mph tailwind. The choice of bikes was critical and I made the wrong choice. A TT bike with a solid disc wheel would have been the right choice, but on bad advice from the race director I went with my normal road bike (would have been a good choice on a calm day). All the fastest guys in my group were on their TT bikes, if fact the guy that won my class today would have also won in the Pro category.
Recover tonight and get ready for tomorrow's 70 mile fun. Hope it doesn't piss down rain.

Callville Suckfest Day 1


Yesterday’s race from start to finish was a complete suckfest! The race started with a short 4 mile climb that was supposed to be neutral, but without a follow car we road it hard! I was at threshold most of the little climb. After the “neutral” section we made a left turn into a cross head wind (35+mph Gusts with 20+sustained according to the weather channel) and the hammer fell. I have never road that fast in a road race not to mention into the wind. I was on the wrong side of the group and I knew I had to get to the other side of the pelaton to get out of the wind. So I floated to the back to try to get to the other side of the group. Not smart! Someone attacked off the front group and I had to chase back on. this scenario repeated several more times and I was dropped off the back. A few minutes later I joined a few others that had been dropped and we chased but didn’t work very well together. With about 10 miles to go we were all on our own. I took it easy the rest of the way in, conserving to fight another day.