It was an early start to get from Waterloo to Norwood but I somehow managed to down a 5:30 bowl of oatmeal and hit the road on time. As this was my first race on a proper TT bike (a beautiful Stevens Chrono!) I gave myself plenty of time to get it pre-checked. Whew, those plumb line skills I learned in undergrad have finally paid off--the set-up was legal. The bike check turned out to be a problem for a few of the racers, leading to mass confusion at the start, and delayed start times. Although I had a decent warm up, by the time I was called to the line, the legs took a while to get going again.
The course was a beautiful out and back, on nice pavement the whole way. It was mostly sheltered by trees, with just a little open spot around a lake to battle with the wind. There were long rollers for most of the course, with a net ascent to the turn around. I started out slow (in retrospect, too slow), and slowly ramped up the effort, trying to push pace up the hills and try to recovery slightly on the descents. The turnaround was on a slight false flat, without paved shoulders, but I felt confident railing it. Given my slowish start, I was really trying to hammer it on the return, and the rollers were starting to wear on me. Not really remembering what the finish looked like I saw a marshal at about 2 km to go, and pushed hard, thinking it was the finish. Whoops! Managed to gather myself and push to the end.
For my first 30km TT and my first time racing on a TT bike, my time tells the story of my lack of hard efforts in June but the Chrono feels super speedy and my focus was spot on. Can’t wait to rip up the local TT on the new bike, I believe there is a long standing course record that is begging to be broken.
-- Mel
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