Flapjack TT Report

We hit the road at 5:15 am to pick up Jake and make the trip down to Picacho. We made a quick pit stop in Casa Grande before arriving at ride out at 7:30am. Jake and James went out first and I tried to get slotted last so James and I could share my gear. No dice. I had to ride out only 20 minutes after him. Sorry Jim!

The course was 20K with the first half into a quartering headwind and uphill around 500 feet. I hit it a little hard going out. It had been since last April since riding a TT and I was antsy and choppy in metering out my mojo. It really became a sufferfest early on as I was balancing on the razor's edge between LT and VO2max range. It took forever to get up that hill, turn around and get going in the right direction. Still, I wasn't feeling great going downhill. I was still fighting to ride steady. My power would be down at 260 watts then 330. It was just crazy. Riding along I thought it was going to be a very disappointing result.

When I saw the 1,000m sign I drilled it up to 400+ watts to blow myself up. That was a long 1,000 meters my friends. It hurt...bad. I kept the power up though and rode through the line to snag a 29:00 good for first place in the master's 45+ and top 5 overall, (I think). The beautiful thing was I managed 301 watts which puts me in basically the same form I had in August of 2008!

James set new power records but had a disappointing time. Check his blog for details. He rode his road bike with aero bars, rear wheel cover and no aero wheel on the front. He was wearing his old Chrono helmet too. I think the crosswind and his set up sank him. He still won his age group but we are flumuxed on the time. It just isn't making sense. Next weekend I suspect things will be different when he gets all my aero stuff for the Valley of the Sun.