Presque Isle Fall Time Trial

Hmmm...This has just not been my year on this course. The spring race was windy and rainy. Today was just windy. In the parking lot, you couldn't tell there was all that much wind. When you hit the first open space onto the Bay, you just got pushed sideways across the road. I was hoping to post a personal best time with this course, but ended up just being happy to have a good time. This course is either really good or really bad. Today was not a good day.

The word for the day: deceptive.

Today started off very brisk (about 49 when packing the car). We got down to Presque Isle and found it becoming a very sunny day with what appeared to be little wind (a rareity down there). Without much wind I put on the tri-spoke on the front and disc back. As I pull up to the start line I had Tim and Sam from Stark Velo immediately in front of me. I knew I'd pass Sam quickly but I had no idea what to expect out of Tim.

A few hundred yards into the race there's a parking lot on the right and you get your first look into the bay. Without the shelter of the woods I learned very quickly this was not going to be an easy day as a gust catches me by surprise. Going in and out of wooded areas proved entertaining to say the least. I had a lot of difficulty controlling the front end. Starting down the backside of the course after a couple of brief periods into the wind, the tailwind took over for most of the ride back. As I picked up speed coming back I was just hoping to keep it together.

I managed to keep things going long enough to better my time from the June race. I was certainly disappointed though because my 20k splits in the last 2 40k TTs were below 29 minutes, today I could only muster a 29:50. I retrospect, Wendy needed to use her race wheel on the front and I should have used my race wheel, oh well. Paul, once again thanks allowing us to borrow your wheels.

Oh, as for Sam, well I passed her in the first mile. Tim, I caught in the second mile. Although Sam could only match her previous times on the course, she took some solice in that fact that she didn't need a $5k TT bike to win her group much to Tim's relief.