Nationals Time Trial 6/24/2010

Category: Elite/U23 Women
Field Size: 12 U23, 36 Elite
Distance: 35km
Place: 6th in U23, 35th overall
Teammate: Emily (2nd)

Emily and I drove up to Bend, OR on Wednesday (the 23rd), and we went for a ride to spin out our legs and preview the TT course. The course was pretty simple - after a couple of turns out of the start, the course heads up a moderate grade for 12km, gaining about 800 feet. At 12km, there's a turnaround and it goes back down the hill to near the start, where it turns off into an extra 11km loop. The loop is rolling, with a couple of moderately steep parts. Finally, there's the finish line.

We got to the course about 75 minutes before our start and started warming up. With 45 minutes to start, I went to the start corral to get my bike checked to see if it met regulations. I almost had a panic attack when they measured it and told me that both my saddle and handlebars were outside the limits. One exception is fine, but two isn't legal. I knew about the saddle, and I qualify for the morphological exception, but I didn't know that my aero bar extensions were too long. I hadn't measured them before because I thought my bike was pretty small, and Jose had used the same setup before. What we forgot to take into account was that he qualified for the aero bar exception and needed it for bars that long. I don't need the bars that long, and I don't even hold them at the ends, but I would have had to take a hacksaw to them to make the bike legal. Since that obviously wouldn't work, I needed to move my saddle back. However, my saddle was already all the way back. Thankfully, I had help. Dan and Andi were there supporting Maura for the TT, and they had a solution for me. They had packed Andi's TT bike as a spare, and her Adamo saddle had more adjustability. Also, since it was a spiffy TT saddle, its nose was designed to facilitate a more forward position, so even though the front of the nose was now far enough back to be legal, my position wasn't much different. And, I found out that I actually like the saddle - not the best way to try out a new saddle, but I was so thankful that I could still ride.

Anyway, we got my bike sorted out and I got in a little more warmup, then it was off to the start corral for good. My bike passed (I knew it would, I'd had it checked again after the saddle swap), then I got to wait for about 10 minutes for my start time. Finally, I was in the start house, ready to go. The holder wasn't great, and I got a bit of a crooked start, but at least I made it down the ramp without falling off of it, and I was off. The beginning of the course actually included a number of turns through a road by the school, and none of that was on the course map in the race bible, so that was a little disorienting. Afterwards I heard other people commenting on that, so I was glad that it wasn't just me who was confused. I had accidentally left my Edge 305 at home, so my bike had no telemetry, but during the race that didn't matter at all, since the course had enough landmarks that I could tell where I was, and I shouldn't be staring at my computer anyway. Once I got onto the straight part, could see my 30-second person up the road. For a couple of miles, I was holding steady behind her, but eventually she started to gain on me. Also I got passed by two people well before the turnaround, which I think was a real blow mentally. Right after they passed me I went harder, but I think I let it get to me too much and I think I lost my focus a little bit. Finally I made it to the turnaround, and I was getting pretty tired by this point from all of the uphill. Shortly after the turnaround, Maura passed me. However, I was still accelerating on the downhill, so I passed her right back. Unfortunately, this went on back and forth for a little while because the course rolled a bit, so on the downhill I would pass her, but she would catch me again on the uphill bits. I was ahead of her for most of the descent, but she passed me as we neared the turnoff to the loop.

That last loop portion of the course was extremely difficult for me. Each little uphill section was pure torture, my legs were so tired. There were a couple of people spectating around the loop, and they cheered me on. I kept going as hard as I could, even though I was feeling awful, and finally made it across the finish line. Once I was done, I was breathing hard for a while, because I was so tired. So even though I didn't do that well in comparison to the other riders, I think I did close to my best effort. I was certainly tired enough at the end. It'll be interesting to see how I do next year, since next year I intend to actually train for races and perhaps specifically the TT. This year's training has been kind of a joke and I knew it.

Emily, on the other hand, had a great TT and got 2nd in the U23's. Obviously she's come a long way from where she was at Madera earlier this year, where I beat her in the TT by a fair margin. So, congratulations Emily, you put in a lot of hard work and it really paid off.