July 3rd, 2008

Longsjo Fitchburg Classic: Stage One -- Time Trial

(This may get repetitive, but it'll probably be appearing in multiple places, and I don't feel like re-writing it).

I was on the road by 6:30am from Cambridge out to Fitchburg for my 8:38:30 start of the time trial. It's pretty short, about 6.9 miles, but mostly uphill. I've never climbed a hill before, and certainly not for five miles at a time. Luckily, I got to pre-ride the course yesterday, so I have a vague idea of what to expect -- rough pavement, cracks everywhere, uphill for five miles, rolling for one, and downhill for one.

We end up getting there a little later than I'd like, so I don't get quite the warmup that I want, but I'm feeling decent, if not a little empty in the stomach and full in the bladder (port-a-johns are at the parking lot, not the start line). I'm the 17th guy to go (bib number 417), but 416 isn't there, and in front of 415 is 412. I was kind of excited about having a 30 second man still in sight when I finished, just to give me something to chase. From what I can tell from a quick glance at the start 418 and 419 don't seem to be there either, so maybe I won't get passed.

I felt surprisingly relaxed until the official holding me nearly let me go, which got a little bit of panic into the system. I got the countdown and took off. There were three photographers lined up at the start, and all three of them got the snazzy 'check me out' face. Sometimes you've just got to do it.

Next thing I know, I'm out of breath and only at the base of the first hill. I started out too hard, even while reminding myself not to. It's easy to get excited. I make myself slow down a bit, as I know the first hill is the steepest, and I'm inches from blowing up. I pull the heart rate back down to 186 and keep on trucking.

I catch site of my one minute man at the top of that hill (tiny dip down to the next hill -- they just keep on building). I can't tell if this is good or bad pacing-wise, or if he's just not riding as strongly.

2.3 miles into it, I catch him on an uphill. He's got all his aero gear (sans disc wheel), so he was holding the gap on the small descents, but I was power past him on the ups. After this, I didn't see anybody for a while, and was just concentrating on keeping a rhythm. I decided to stay in the big ring the whole time, but definitely found myself in 53/25 quite a few times (couldn't get to the 27 in the big ring, or else I would have). I was out of the saddle twice and on the hoods, on the tops of the bars (still tucked over) once, but other than that, I was in the drops the entire time, just trying to stay as low as possible, keeping the knees and elbows in.

I finally saw my 2:30 guy at about mile four. I picked up some distance on him on the final hills, but he had a decent position, and once we hit the downhills, I couldn't close the gap too much. I had paced myself to nearly explode right at the top of the last big hills, barely suffer through the fast rollers, and then basically be dead for the last downhill mile, and I nailed it perfectly. I had closed down the gap from #412 to about 100 meters by the time we finished.

All in all, finished up in 19:46, good enough for 19th, and (if I'm not mistaken) the first finisher without any aero gear. We'll see how tomorrow goes.