With the weather the way it's been the past two days, it seemed there was little hope of a dry day. When I took the dogs outside around 1:30 this morning, it looked like it just got done pouring down. Luckily when I got to Greenville, the roads were kind of dry but getting dryer, but the bad news was they were freshly fricken chip sealed three weeks ago. Chip seal + cycling = slow and bumpy.
I saw Jim Matson in the parking lot and thought "shit, I'm racing for second" as he beat me last month by over 1:30. Nutz.
Armed with my new set of tires and tubes, I started fourth on the day. About 4 miles in I passed my one and two minute men within seconds of each other. There was a little wind, but the weather said it was coming out of SSE, which was odd since I was going West and feeling it. HUH? By the time I hit the turn around I was feeling drained but looking down at my powertap showed that I had a several seconds on my normal "out" section time. Good news!
The trip back was much faster. Ah ha! The wind was coming out of the SSW - now that makes more sense. I was still feeling rough though. A combination of only 3 hours of sleep last night, chip seal and the "out" wind made me hurt more than normal. Praying at the 1 mile to go sign that I had a decent time, I looked down and gave it all I had which didn't feel like much. 301 watts to be exact for the last mile.
At the finish I was spent, but saw a new personal record! I was 26 seconds faster than the previous two months. 29:01 via power tap (29:05 official). At the registration area afterward, almost everyone I heard had stories of how their times were slower due to the chip seal.
In the end, Jim still beat me but this time by only around 30 seconds. I ended up second to him in my division and fourth overall.
Now the bad news - my stupid decision back in March and April (when I was between TT bikes) cost me a free jersey. At those two races (March was actually cancelled due to fog) I chose to race the Orca in the "standard class". For whatever stupid reason I didn't ride age group and since the requirements to repeat as Series Champion was to ride 7 of the 8 tt's I was hosed. Well I was present at all 8 but raced two in the standard class. I'm an idiot. No jersey/championship for me. I'll get it back in 2009.
To add insult to injury, in the April race had I chosen to race age group I would have gotten second place with my time. BUT NO, I got third riding standard class.
3 comments:
Sounds like you still had a good TT. Congrats. Jersey part sucks.
Great job on the TT forget about the jersey part sounds like a bunch of lame red tape rules to me I think you deserve it!
Awesome Bryan! Keep it up!!
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