The TT on this day was a fast course but still a heavy one. A few rolling hills around the half way point and a long barely uphill 3 mill drag to the finish line proved to make this a deceivingly hard course. I road the course a few times the other day once steady and easy and the other with some 5’ intervals. I figured even if the conditions were real good, no wind. It would be hard for me to go faster than 26 MPH average.
Come race day I was excited to test myself. This week I had started to cut back my over all training time and no more tempo, threshold, “hard work” kinda training. It is full gas or recovery ride from here to Gila. After getting the lady out the door for a ride and talking to a client I was now running late. Actually really late. No car drive out there I was going to have to ride. So a hasty warm up/ need to get there fast 40 minute ride. I signed in, pined the number through on the borrowed Zipps and rolled over to the start. An official looked up at me” Eric?” yes sir. I said almost before he finished getting out my name. “1 minute”
Ohh I thought. “No more warm up” I said. “Ahh warm up is over rated” said official number 2.
I pulled off the arm warmers and put my front wheel on the line clipped in and tock a deep breath. “Ok”, I thought, “not much wind maybe a little from the south which will make the last half of the course long, slow and tough. Don’t go out to hard there is that little climb 1 mile in take it easy, especially since my warm had basically one 30 second hard effort. My wheels are on right… right. I looked down at my skewers. “GO!” the official yelled.
I got into my rhythm fast and calmed my self down. First turn and I really cooked it. There was a teammate there helping out with the race and had the cheering going when I was 200m away. I really slammed that corner. Love my Bianchi. Accelerating a bit to hard maybe I was now on the really fast section of the course I worked up to my 53-12 and eased back a bit. It was my biggest gear and you really needed the 11 at least. That is when mister Baker, cyclocross wizard and climbing God ripped by me. At only 30 seconds back I figured he would pass me but not this soon. Its ok I said to my self. Stick to the plan. I turned south got into a nice rhythm, but I could feel my lack of warm up and more so the lack of stretching as my hamstrings started to remind me that I don’t stretch enough as it is. I hit the long roller that marked about half way and I started to push into the red zone. Looking at my speed I was doing pretty well. Baker was far up the road now bit I tried to focus on my race. Another right hand turn and I had 3 miles to go. I pushed into the wind and heavy road. The speed came down but the pain went sky high. I’m not sure on exact wind conditions but I was holding the same speed I did 2 days earlier on the same piece of road. But this effort was much longer. Ok so Baker passed me but he I going pretty good here, I could tell. I pushed more, a hard right then a quick left. Sharp 90 degree turns, I never got out of my aero bars. LOVE THAT BIKE! Out of the saddle now trying to accelerate, Or just trying. My legs started to feel like led, I pushed more. My clock said 28:something. The vision blurred. “holly crap!” I thought. I figured there would be now way I could break 30’ I hammered up the short incline to the finish. 30:50 I was right, but still a solid effort. I looked back and saw a 5280 rider not far behind. Damb! I know they’re a pro team but there juniors too! In the end Baker won. And beat me by around 2:30. pretty serious time gap and the young lad behind me who is that guy I asked the winner afterwards. Ohh that’s “little Phinney, he’s got good jeans.” Jeans? I thought, what the fu*% are you… just then I saw him talking to Davis Phinney. His dad. “ohhhh, yeah good Genes…
I came in mid pack, still trying to figure out who the others are that beat me and what category they are so I can see where I stand. All in all a good effort and afterwards I felt great! Better than before. Then I did the Team TT with mister Baker and 2 of his teammates. I won’t get into the specifics but it was very, very painful. We held of the all pro team the best we could. They beat us by about 30-40 sec. a good effort I thought by us mere mortal non pros.
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