frozen tt
first race of the frozen flatlands omnium out here was the time trial. first time on the time trial bike this year too. that always makes for a great race. the course was a winding car race track which made for some interesting riding.
for the unitiated, time trialling is a race from point to point done alone rather than in a group. essentially it is a race against the clock so riders use aerodydnamic helmets and those fancy areodynamic bikes. riding in that aerodynamic position is really different from the normal position and requires a lot of practice.
my time for the 10 miles was 10:40. the winning time was probably 10:10 or so. that's a lot of time lost for only a ten minute effort. on the plus side i think i held a steady effort well, doing each lap at exactly 5:20, which is the goal. i think i probably could have gone a bit faster. tough to say though, which is where the practice factor comes in. a huge part of the skill is to know your body and how it feels when you're close to cracking and when you really aren't but are starting to feel it. the negative was not warming up. i got about 15 minutes in and really i need half an hour. i didn't synch my clock to the race clock and found that mine was slow by 25 minutes! i found that out thinkiing i had 45 minutes until my start when i really only had 20!
they aren't kidding when they calling "frozen flatlands". yesterday it was rather warm but today it is cold. well, probably 40° or so, but its a damp 40°, which feels a heck of a lot colder.
