Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Team Florida Time Trials

Mick Hellman
Saturday 2/24/07
Individual & Team Time Trials

ITT--Mildly rolling 11 mile course near Gainesville, FL
Rolled out of the start gate at 10:17am on this very windy, blustery morning. Outbound leg was head/sidewind. My 30 second man was already a small dot in the distance. Kept power under max pain threshold. Gradually got 30 second man in my view, passed him, then hit the turnaround. Now wind is from the back/side. Flying. Power up. One-minute man in my sights. Lactate building in the legs. Starting to go blind from effort. Minute man so close. Pass the 1 1/2 minute man at the line. Almost catch the minute man, but not quite. Met my power output goals; best power ever in a TT. 5th place in pro/1/2 field of 35, although some highly dodgy accounting for categories put 2 collegiate riders who had ridden an hour earlier than us (with no wind) at the head of the pro/1/2 field, causing much annoyance from the other pro/1/2 riders. So I was 4 seconds off the real pace for pro/1/2, and 3rd on any normal basis of accounting.

TTT--16 mile rolling course
Looking for a second ride for the day, I hung around the registration table hoping to find a team needing a 4th rider for the team time trial. Finally met up with "Wheel & Sprocket" out of Wisconsin, led by the very able Andy Crater (who went on to win the pro/1/2 crit the next day), and joined by his younger teammates Cole House (who's going over to Belgium with the USAC U23 program) and Noah Netzler. However, I was the only one from our impromptu team with a tt bike. This put us at a considerable disadvantage to the other pro/1/2 teams. Results still haven't been posted, although I know we didn't win the TTT.

Got sick on the drive home. Still recovering. Should be ready for CVC.

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