race report by peter.

 

like most things, time trials are something that you have to practice and compete in to be really good at them.  there are lots of opportunities to do this as atta runs events across the whole year and you could basically be doing one every second weekend.  my last time trial was the team time trial around sept/oct last year. 

one benefit is that i do have a time trial bike harking back from my triathlon days.  since those days are not that long ago, the bike is still quite modern and was a lot better than just slapping some tt bars on the road bike.  i was originally setup by budgie and taking into account my crap flexibility and the fact that i would have to run off the bike, it was very high at the front.  in the week leading up to the event i made some adjustments to the height of the handle bars.  (it is always good to change your position come race day, right???).  effectively i dropped the front end down about 7cm while leaving the saddle pretty much the same height.  there is a fine line here as the lower you are, the more aerodynamic you are but you start to lose power as you are in a more cramped position.  not only that, there are parts of your anatomy that don’t really like to get squashed against a bike seat.  i have scope to lower the front about another 2 or 3 cms, but may need to either get a smp cut away saddle or a visit to one of our urologist to get it all chopped off.

anyway, i do actually take the time trial bike out about once a week and managed to get a ride in on the new position.  it didn’t seem too bad in the efforts that i was doing around the river.  unfortunately my nice clean, ready to race bike was now filthy as it rained last wednesday when i took it out.  a quick hose and chain lube and i was almost ready to go.  i managed to borrow chris’ deeper dish cosmics to try to get some form of aero advantage, but i was sure that i was grasping at straws by this time.

so, race day comes around and i made the loooong trip down to dardanup with judd.  i am sure that we can find a nice circuit closer to perth for the state championships.  also signed up for the day was stu, rob, lorraine, nicole and the fleet girls.  paul o had also signed up, but bloused it as he had a flight to catch… the next day.  the event was scheduled for a 2pm start which gave everyone lots of time to make the trip down and not having to get up at 5am was a nice change.

stu, rob and myself were in the masters division and our course was only 25kms.  the women did the same course, while judd, being the young buck, had to compete in the open division over 39kms.  this was the same course that we did at the dardanup road race not so long ago and had a few sharp climbs in it.  the open course had a few sharp climbs as well as a big hill.  glad i am an old man now.

with no atta results or previous form to go off, rob and i were to leave quite early, while stu was going off with the big boys.  the pointy end of the start list looked like an atta results page with a bunch of the regulars making the most of the state champs in their preferred discipline.  the women were next to leave followed by the u19 and open men.  judd’s start time was almost an hour after mine and he was doing a longer course.

we arrived early enough to pitch the spr sunshade and set up underneath to start our warmup.  with a 25km race, i was going to need about an hour of warmup as, unlike a road race, there would be no cruisey start to proceedings.  stu, judd and myself were stationed on our trainers under the shade and spun out some k’s.  i am sure that i was still not fully warmed up when all of a sudden i saw rob take off from the line.  i grabbed the bike off the trainer and zoomed up the road a couple of times to make sure the biek wouldn’t fall apart on me.

pretty soon i was on the startline with john holding the back of my saddle and a lady giving me a countdown.  5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and i was off.  damn the bars are low now when i am holding onto the bull horns.  i quickly settled into the aero position and made my way up the gears to get up to speed.

we were being set off at minute intervals so i had rabbits to chase and wolves to be chased by.  once i cleared the town the road straightened up and i could actually see my minute man up the road.  time is a really deceptive thing when you are riding a bike in this situation.  you assume that as you can see the other rider, you mustn’t be that far behind.  if you actually pick a landmark and count the seconds that it takes for you to also pass it, you soon realise how much time you need to make up.

the wind was low but i am still not 100% sure of the direction as it seemed to spin around during the event.  i was in the big ring and powering along but soon realised that my hammys were not that warmed up for big efforts and had to ease back a bit.  longer efforts needed during warmup.  i kept the pace up as best i could but started to worry about the guy chasing me.  i didn’t dare look behind just in case i could actually see him.  our course was supposedly flat with a couple of small bumps and a power climb.  turn around and head home over the same bumps.  at the end of the day it is actually uphill on the way out and downhill on the return, but not enough to make it really count.

as we started to tackle the small bumps, i realised that i was actually making up some time on my minute man.  he seemed to be struggling a bit on the ups but still doing ok on the flats.  at about the 9.5km mark we hit the main climb and i was catching him fast.  i left it in the big ring and powered past him before we crested the top.  i was now a bit worried that i would get past as the road flattened out so i kept the power on going down the other side to stay ahead. 

a couple of riders were now heading the other way as i approached the turnaround and i was still ahead of my rabbit.  i tried to work out how far ahead the next guy was and set my goal to catch him before the end.  within two kms we were on the power climb again and i hit it hard to catch and pass my two minute man.  congratulated me as i past him, but i was maxing out at 189 bpm, so may have just grunted an acknowledgement.  it did make me feel better though.

homeward bound and i was now looking at my average speed to try to get it up as high as possible.  i knew that it would not be in the 40’s but i was disappointed to see it around the 36 mark.  as the return was flatter, i was determined to keep the bike over the 40 mark as much as possible.  i couldn’t see any other riders in front of me, so now i was riding scared and making sure i stayed ahead of the chasers.

the faster pace and new position began to catch up with me as my left upper calf started to feel tight.  basically from there to my hamstrings were feeling the pinch and i started to feel the onset of a cramp.  bugger.  just keep pushing.  

putting more power through my right leg, i managed to stave off any real cramp that would have stopped me in my tracks.  the final run into town was tough but fast and i could just see a rider up the road as we approached the town.  he managed to stay 30 sec in front of me as i crossed the line.

a quick cool down and then back onto the trainer to spin the legs out again.  rob started in front of me but was a little slower.  he out it down to stuffing up the turn around and having to turn back around again.  i was worried about his time as he recently did the half-ironman so had some form leading into the day.  stu came through next and took about a minute and half out of my time for a great ride.  as we waited for the women to finish, judd was still warming up waiting for his start time.

all the girls came it with anna suffering from new bike syndrome and taking second overall with holly third.  i had to give holly crap as she beat me by 1 sec.  bec came in 5^th, nicole 8^th and lorraine and jill came in the exact same time in 9^th and 10^th.

we had a long wait for judd, who did a respectable 1:03:31 to come in 12^th.  with two fleet girls on the podium the spr hats made another appearance as we packed up and made the long trek home.

results can be found here.