The good news is that the Friday before the race, my sweet Metal kit arrived from Twin Six! My first team gear, now I feel special.
The race was the first event of the "New " Tailwind Racing, the Pontiac Lake Time Trial in Waterford. Single speeders were scheduled to race at 1:30 in the afternoon. Plenty of time to sleep in a bit, eat, and make the drive without feeling rushed.
We arrived at the park a little before 11:30 and headed to the registration. This is where the frustration began. The line was way deep with people standing around waiting to get their information logged in. I was not terribly concerned, as I had preregistered afterall. The sport racer's start was being delayed 30 minutes, so they got priority in the line, then beginners, then us one-geared folk. After 40 minutes, I got to the front of the line, and entered my information onto the computer, got my start time (1:20:10 a.m.) and was told to add 40 minutes to this time. I also verified with the Tailwind person that my starting time would be 2:00:10 that afternoon.
Again, I wasn't upset with the delay, as I have my tag now, and sign-in should run smoothly at future races. I was kind of annoyed about having to stand in line for 40 minutes, next time I am bringing a chair or something.
I head back to the truck and check if my bike is still there. Did some assembly, stuck on my number, and headed back to the start area to browse around. I stopped by the Big Ring Coffee tent, and picked up a bag of Single Track beans, for future race mornings. Around 1:00 they guy showed up that I was buying a bike rack from. So I made that transaction, and mounted a Kuat NV rack to the back of my truck. I am happy to no longer have to take of my front wheel all of the time. I am not sure if I am thoroughly impressed thus far, but still learning.
Any how, it is now ~1:20, time to change clothes and start warming up, still with around 40 minutes before race time. I get some spinning in, an the legs are feeling rather warm. I head back to the truck at 1:45 to grab my helmet and stuff for the race. When I get there, my wife tells me they are starting!
I snatch my gear and get to the starting area at 1:50, a full 10 minutes before I was scheduled to start. I get to the gates, and tell them "Number 904" to which I was told "We already sent the low numbers!" I go to somebody else with a clipboard and was told I had to start at the back! Again, WTF!?!
As I am standing there, straddling my bike, watching everybody go in front of me, I was informed that the promoters were trying to make up some time, so the moved the starting time back up. Who thought that was a good idea?
Finally it was my turn to go, so I did. I jumped on it, flew out of the gate and was down the trail in a flash. Heart rate pegged, my wife said she didn't have time to take a picture. I was pissed and letting it all go, I never saw the guy I started with until we were standing around waiting for results (stay tuned).
I honestly don't remember much about the trail. It was surprisingly dry, only 1 mud hole about 1.5 miles in. I rode through, I wasn't slowing down for anything. There was a climb at about 2 miles and I charged up it like a goat on crack. Some more single track miles in, and I hit the climb around 7 miles. I There is a sharp right-hander at the bottom which I almost washed out on. As I result, I carried no momentum up this hill so I hopped off and ran it. After this is was just more pedaling to the finish. I was trying to catch my O2W teammate Gus Hemingway (or Hemmingway if you are looking at the results) who started ahead of me, but never caught a glimpse of him.
Once across the finish, it just felt different. I didn't have my finishing burst, with the puffy-cheeks of fury. I wasn't feeling overly tired, or stressed. I am pretty sure I went sufficiently hard. I almost crashed, at speed, three times. I luckily recovered each time, only unclipping once. Seems like I was riding on the edge.
So, I started around 2:00, finished in around 44 minutes (by my Garmin). I stood around the registration area, and found out that sport awards were not posted yet. They had to have started around 13:30 or 1! So I went back and changed.
Now to cut an excruciatingly long blog post short:
~3:45: Sport SS times posted, I was not even listed. Got in the "complaint" line and waited my turn. Apparently I did not have a category assigned.
~4:00: I am now on the results sheet, last place without a time. Back in line.
~4:15: Awards. Not sure where I ended up, as times weren't reposted. I wait.
It turns out I got second place, behind Gus, who flew through the course a full 2 minutes faster than I. It was an O2W 1-2 finish.
I grab my medal, jump in the truck and head to the Waterford Sonic. In addition to spending ~5 hours at the race, I only had breakfast that morning (and some Gu). Time to carbo re-load!
My dear wife ended up getting sun/wind burned face whilst standing around all day. I have the best pit crew!
Now it is 3 days until Custer. Cold, crappy weather in store. See you there!
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