Back to the gravel patch - Putah Creek Smackdown # 3

With nationals over it was time to make my TT bike conform to UCI rules to get ready for worlds. That meant a new shorter saddle so I can meet the “no less than 5cm behind the BB rule” without actually changing my position. It also meant a new set of aero bars to meet the “no more than 75cm in front of the BB rule”. Other than fact that I now have my hands hanging out past the end of my aero bars and only grip them by looping my pinky around the shifters it seemed to work out pretty well.

(Notice that I subtly put my excuse right up front so that hardly anybody will notice…)

Out on Putah Creek Road it was on the windy side. It was windy the last time I was here when Mick broke the course record with a 20:40, but I felt that it was a bit windier this time. On the line the starter asked me what kind of time I wanted to do. I said that I’d like to do 21:00 or better, but thought that would be too much to ask considering the wind. The way out was slow, but not totally unexpected with the wind. I hit the turn around in 11:20 which pretty much sucked, but I wrote it off to the wind. On the way back though, life was good. I was holding 32mph for long stretches and ripped back in 10:00 for a 21:20 total.

So there I was standing in the gravel patch feeling pretty damn good about myself, waiting to see how my time stacked up. Not unlike last time where I had come within 6 seconds of the course record. Until Mick told me that he had broke the record… No records today, but Dave crushed my soul in much the same way. 20:53. WTF! So that was that, in the gravel patch, where it mattered, Dave had shown that he was a man. Turns out I was a 16 year old teenager who thought he was a man, but had no clue.

So, in two weeks we’ll be back. Hopefully Mick will come too and we can have a full on AMD smackdown.

Until then, did I mention that I neglected to tape over the valve holes on my wheels? I’m just sayin’…