Time Trialling

Sunday's effort was not my best. 281 watts for 16:50 was good for 3rd in my division and 10th overall (out of 43). It got me thinking about time trialling. People either love them or HATE THEM WITH A PASSION! I actually like them. I guess it came from when I started riding in 2002 (yeah, I only started riding when I was 32 years old, shut up) where all I did was ride by myself as hard as I could. Back then was when I was in my "weight loss" mode. I ran quite a bit and fancied myself as a duathlete until I realized that 21 minute 5k's would get me nowhere even if I could ride a bike fast. I bought a time trial bike (the one I have now) before I ever even thought about bike racing and just rode it for fun as fast as I could.

Forward to 2005, my first season as a fresh cat 5. I was having a pretty good season going into the Tree City Stage Race, which consisted of a road race, time trial and criterium, all time based in a combined cat 4/5. I finished at the back of the pack around 25th or so in the road race, but was "same time" as everyone but the stage winner (time bonus). The time trial was early on Sunday morning where I pulled out 2nd place in my field. My time would have been top 5 for cat 3's and top 10 in the 1/2 field. A time trialler was born that day. So I crashed in the crit and lost my spot in the GC that afternoon, but so what? :)

I only did one other TT that season, again as part of a stage race. It was the Midwest Championship Stage race in Bloomington, Indiana. I got 3rd place in the ABR cat 4 division.

In 2006 I competed in 11 time trials, including two sub-1 hour efforts at the Monrovia 40k race, and a bronze medal in the state championships. In 2007, I did 9 TT's along the way to winning the Colavita series. Overall, 11 podiums out of 23 entered races.

What does all this mean? Those who love time trials, time trial. Those who don't only do it if it's required for a stage race. That doesn't diminish the success I've had, though, at least to me since it's only people who love time trials that TIME TRIAL.

I'm not sure what the future will hold for this time trialler, but it's getting clearer a little more as time passes. My racing age is 38 this season, so in two years (duh) I'll be 40. At 40, I'll be at the young end of my age bracket and will probably switch the bulk of my races to the master's group. Over the next two years, I hope to build myself up to being somewhat competitive on a national level in time trials. There, I put it in writing so if it doesn't happen, I'll look like quite the chump.