Author

Bill Barnes on May 8, 2010

Race name: Verizon Wireless Two man TTT Race date: Saturday, May 8, 2010

Just took a one hour nap for 5 hours. I guess I didn't hold anything back today. I went out to Garden Prarie to do a 2 man TT this morning, having never met my TT partner before. Arrived to a cold, windy start, and met up with David Heckelsmiller only to realize I didn't have any full fingered gloves, and after a quick warm up, realized this was gonna be a problem.

So, I did the only pro thing I could think of and started asking random people if anyone had a spare set of gloves I could borrow. Yeah, real pro. Anyway, it turned out a guy nearby happened to have a pair of rubber gardening gloves he could loan me, so I took him up on it and prepared to ride 40K in rubber gloves with my team issue gloves on top of them.

I felt great this morning, other than the cold, and after David and I did a little warm up and tested ourselves out against each other, realized I was probably slightly faster or maybe feeling slightly more motivated this morning. I've wanted to do a 40k TT without the hassle of swimming or running for a long time. David and I agreed to just go with it, stick to our verbal cues we'd decided on over emails, and if it turned out one of us did more work, that was going to put us as a team in the best place so no hurt feelings were allowed.

We are both CAT 5's with less than 5 road races each, riding road bikes, against a field of mostly (if not all) CAT 4's, some of whom had full on TT setups. However, the wind seemed to be everyone's enemy today, with a WNW wind at 20-25 mph going the entire race. I don't know if aero setups really would have helped either of us unless we had ridden them a lot and were super comfortable on them. The only piece of aero equipment between the two of us was my HED Jet 6's.

At the start, we had discussed the idea of trying to take it easy in the beginning, knowing we'd be facing a nasty headwind on the return trip. About a minute in, David and I decided that we were probably only going to gain any time with the tailwind, so we went all out and did about 29mph for the first 6-8 miles. After the fourth turn when we came into the headwind, I was sure we were going to get pounded. I constantly looked at my computer and tried to keep us above the 20mph mark against the wind. TT's are such a mental battle that you just have to not give into the fact that basically, it sucks, and you're in pain. David and I continually lied to each other and assured the other that he was looking good, had good form, and plenty left. Truth is as we made the last two turns first into a crosswind, then into a straight headwind, we were starting to fade. The last 6 miles was pretty much a pure headwind and I told David I wanted to try to keep the pace at over 20mph and finish strong.

I think with the wind as strong as it was, David and I on normal road bikes we're used to and comfortable on was probably a good thing, and our time reflected that. We broke an hour by a few seconds and took home silver medals as a result. After the race I had to get to the grass and stretch as soon as possible because I was literally dry-heaving and my muscles were tightening up in a bad way. I thought we'd definitely given it everything we had, but didn't realize how well we'd done until they announced results. In a field of 15 Cat 4/5 entries, we took home second as a pair of green 5's with almost no aero gear. Not too frikkin bad, I say.

I am sore, my nose is still dripping snot, and if I'd gone any harder I wouldn't have stayed upright. Proper f'd as Greta would say. And I can't wait to do it again.