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What Richard saw:
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We had two teams riding Pinole: myself and Garry and Alan and Brian Z.
Garry and I had chickened out of a practise ride on Saturday morning, wimps that we are - it was raining, so the warm-up to the race was the first chance we had to ride in formation on the aerobars. We didn't seem to be doing too badly. Upon meeting Garry, he thrust into my hands some prototype FFBC Race Team overshoes, in the FFBC red, which we took almost too much delight in wearing. We certainly looked the part with our tricked-out bikes and matching kit.
We warmed up on a side street and found a nice hill which got the pulse to the threshold on the way up so that at the start, I was feeling reasonably warmed-up. Garry later said that he could have warmed-up some more before the start. As it was, we timed our arrivel at the start very nicely, sitting for less than 2 minutes prior to our start.
I lead out of the start, and got my foot into the pedal straight away and promptly accelerated away from Garry who had had problems getting his foot into the pedal. We sorted ourselves out and then it was into the aerobars and we were on our way.
I thought we were going pretty briskly until we got to 3 miles into the route where we were overtaken by our minute men... These guys were serious, they had a following car and in the warm-up, I had spotted that one of them had the TREK OCLV TT frame, which is $4000 for the frame only! After we were passed, we were able to keep these guys in sight for a respectable length of time.
After the turn, which came earlier than I was expecting given the mileage shown on my computer, we got a little help from the slope, but one we negotiated the junction, we were into the headwind stretch. At this point we started to catch people ourselves and we passed two groups on the run-in to the finish.
I didn't feel our (unofficial) time of 28:54 was too bad, what with Garry recovering from a cold. Alan and Ziggy seemed to enjoy their first time trial, and I certainly enjoyed my first TT in 4 years. We found a nice coffee shop afterwards and Alan regailed us with stories of boat races and sinkings.
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What Garry saw:
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My view was mostly of Richards hairy legs pounding along.
I sucked, and therefore the majority of the hard work was done by Richard.
I guess I saw the front for about 20-25% of the race.
But damn, we looked good.
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What Ziggy saw:
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Sorry to hear that the S.O.C. didn't go as well as was planned. I'm pleased to report that I had a wonderful time playing chase with Alan at the Pinole TTT.
I proudly joined the wuss club with Richard and Garry the day before because it was wet outside. Alan, however, was out to prove that a little rain was no match for him as he went out for a short ride that afternoon. I put in some time on the rollers at work saturday evening.
With Alan driving (thanks!), we headed towards pinole at about 7:15 am. Upon arriving at the parking lot for the TTT, I was in awe at the gear some of the riders showed up with. I guess it's because I'm new at this racing stuff, but this race was as much of a bike show as it was a kick in the pants at race time. After admiring Richard and Garry's awesome new super red overshoes, Alan and I were off for some warm-up. Knowing that I wasn't to cross the start line until my actual start time, I was on the lookout for it during my warm-up. Well, I found it alright. Not because there was spectacularly clear marking that said "START" or something to that effect (there wasn't), rather because I ran into Barry(?) the caller of the numbers who promptly chewed my head off and ate it for his morning snack. Tail between my legs, I rode in the opposite direction as quietly and as quickly as I could without interrupting anyone elses start.
The rest of our warm-up went smooth. We tried out Brad's suggestion of getting the HR up a few times and managed the last effort just before arriving at the start line. Our timing was spot on, we only had to wait for two pairs of riders before we were off. Thankfully, the well-wishing numbers guy didn't remember me from our earlier encounter. At the go, I beat Alan to the pedals, and after a very brief delay, we were off to seek our physical punishment for that afternoon. Richard had prepared us for this by reminding us several times that, "...Time trials just plain hurt..." Was he ever right! Thanks to Brad's warm-up tip, the beginning of the race was fairly painless. This painlessness would end shortly, replaced with warm 'n fuzzy lactic acid burn. The race went without a hitch. We passed only one pair of racers, and were ourselves passed up by a pair of very speedy pros. I tried to keep up with them, but after about two seconds I decided this wasn't going to happen and I sat back down. Alan and I finished somewhere around 30 minutes. The only disappointing part of this race was the second half that was supposed to be a nice speedy downhill. Instead, we were faced with a very menacing headwind.
There's a very satisfying feeling to be had in knowing you finished a race having given 110% of everything you had to offer at any point during the race. I want more!
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What Alan saw:
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Who would have thought that 11.2 miles could be so hard on one's system?
Brian and I had a good race that brought us in at 30:45, thanks more to Brian's pulling on the return than my wheezing effort! The race was a sprint the entire way; if I had a heart rate monitor I believe it would have been pegged the entire time. Brian and I completed a good warm-up, about 11 miles with 3 hard sprints of a mile or so each, uphill. We arrived at the starting line about 4 minutes before our start (great timing). I had the same problem as Gary with the pedals, and Brian had to slow for me at the start while I locked in. I was surprised how quickly the mileage ticked away, and before I knew it we were at the turn-around (the course monitor kept yelling "good turn!" as we swung around the curve - what an odd bit of encouragement!). The return was into a strong headwind, and Brian really took charge and pulled at least 2/3 of the way in. It must be all the weights he has been lifting. I just remember watching his legs spinning as he took the lead, thinking to myself, "I must be in a big gear compared to him." But the reality was he had the stronger legs and I was obliged to suck his wake.
The only team that passed up were some pros from Ofoto, and we passed a female team (does that count for anything?).
I have no idea how we placed.
Some good news - I started a new job today in Cupertino. 25 mile commute. I should have no problem racking up the weekly miles now.
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