Gear Push Time Trial - 8.10.2008

Today Vu, John S., Barbara and I ventured down for the Gear Push TT. This was my second race on the Abici since Tenino. I made the swap to the "straight" aero bars and found that to be a much more comfortable position.

Barb was starting things off with the first start time of the day. Maybe Rory knew something we didn't, because she won the woman's cat 4! (Barb getting in the zone)
I went off 40 minutes later. 2 minutes in I realized my speed sensor didn't start my clock and I wasn't registering. I hit the start button quickly to have some idea of where I was at. At least I had heart rate right? Wrong. A few minutes later the Polar decides to go weird on me, registering a HR of 34 beats per minute, then 203, then 84, then back to 177. I'm guessing I was between 175 and 183 for most of the time. I ended up 13th with a 24:31. My goal was to break 25 minutes so I'm pretty happy with that.

Mr. John Sindel took the opportunity to swap helmets with me since I finished well before him. I know that's why he came in with a 22:50(1), 2nd place in the cat 4 mens! Vu put in an excellent time of 25:27.

If photos are good, than video must be way better...right? Here is John in the last 200K. You can hear the disk making a funny sound (which we later found was it rubbing on the frame)





So we ended the day with a 1st and 2nd for Team Starbucks. Full results can be found here.

WA State Time Trial - Tenino

This was a day of a lot of first, first time going to Tenino, first time racing my new Abici TT bike and the first time I've done a 40K TT.

Steve, Pete, Vern and I made our way down south. I figured I needed to keep my heart rate steady and near threshold but back it off about 5 beats given the distance. I started out a little faster than I wanted but felt good. It was nice and windy all the way out and then the fun starts will the rollers.

I was amazed at the full range of emotion I went through..."man, I feel GREAT!...uh oh...I'm going to hard...I feel like crap....is this over yet?....ah ha, now I'm getting a second wind!....where the hell is the 1K sign already!?!?!?"

The bike is fast, but I need to make some serious adjustments to my position. The "L" bend bars have got to go and the stem is a little to long. I might have to break down for a new saddle too. Being on the nose of a racing saddle for 18 minutes is OK, 1 hour feels like torture.

I ended up 14th with a time of 1:03:24.29. Getting in the top ten required breaking 1hr (next year). Full results here. HR averaged 171 with avg speed of 21.9. meh.


This is one event where I think you either have it or you don't. You have cat 4/5's going faster than the pro's and masters D racers absolutely setting the course on fire.

Aside from all the pain and suffering, it was a beautiful day for bike racing. We finished off the race with beer and burgers at Scotty B's. Our server was fantastic, I think Steve is going to need therapy...it was a little traumatic for him. :)

Abici Time Machine

Finally got this together. It's a bummer that their are only 2 TT's left in the year but that will give me some time to get the fit sorted out. I'm probably going to switch to straight aero bars but these will work for now.Built it up mostly of stuff I already had, Dura Ace 10spd drivetrain, Rolf Vector Pro wheels, Profile bull horns, etc. Given the deal I got on the frame it's well worth it, but not with some challenges. The frame maker went out of business and this was the last of a custom order for a college team in Oregon. The kids father finally got the frame 6 months later, but it was missing the seatpost clamp and headset. The clamp was seriously over engineered and I finally found a guy in Mesa Arizona that had a few of them custom machined. It took a few months to get things together but it rides great!

We'll see how I do at the state TT tomorrow. :)