Boxing Day TT

[Roland]

I'm not sure where Peter was, but a group of us still headed out to the TT. It was cold and very frosty, Jeremy had an incident with the railway tracks, but was ok. After a few wrong turns we got to the TT with about 10 minutes to spare.

The TT is along happy valley road. 6.8 km out, turn around the hat (somebody forgot the cones) and then 6.8 km back to the start. 3° and windy. Perfect conditions for a TT.

I was up 4th, Dave Shishkoff in front of me and Josh behind me. Dave broke his chain at the start and was out. I pulled out of my pedal at the start but kept it upright. I continued setting a decent pace on the way out, averaging 38.9. I turned around and it all wen't horribly wrong. Up hill and into a headwind. I averaged 30.7 km/h on the way back with a heartrate of 175.9. Ouch.

I finished with a time of 23:30 or so, much faster than when I did it two years ago.

Josh did well coming 2nd, beaten only by Don Gillmore. Gleno was 5th I think. And Jeremy did well in his first race, even after crashing earlier in the day.

Good times were had by all, and if you weren't there then you missed out. (on some timbits)

[Roland]

[jeremy]

Ya it was a fun day, I think I rode a 25:09 and came in 7th, should have a nice black and blue arm to go along with the road rash on my knee (maybe it's time for some studded winter tires)

I think anyone who did a ride this morning should get +50 winter gloating points

[Josh.E]

Well, that was a nice little escape from the house after the last two weeks. We had lots of family in town, so Barbara headed out to her Grams house with both kids in tow.

The TT was fun, very slight downhill and slight tailwind on the way out, very slight uphill, and headwind on the way back. I managed 41.3km/h on the way out and slower on the way back, but overall the legs were feeling pretty good. The spin bike sessions I've been getting in at home the last two weeks seem to have done at least some good.
For those of you who haven't tried a time trial, it's pretty much the most pain you can put yourself through on a road bike. It's a race against the clock, no drafting, just you and the bike and the wind. Cyclocross is similar intensity, but the TT gives you a lot more opportunity to dwell on the pain you're putting yourself through. The key is to find a balance between pain and performance. If you go too hard, you'll pop yourself too early, and end up going much slower.
Although the legs were definitely feeling a little heavy, I managed to settle in and find a good pace that I maintained until the 1km to go sign, at which point I just went for it. Turns out my heartrate at the finish was 186. In the end I managed 2nd place with a time of 21:06, which was good enough for second place behind Don Gilmore. For those of you who don't know Don, he's FAST, as in, nipping at Roland Greens course record at the Sidney TT fast. As my only chance of beating Don would have been him having a crash or mechanical, I was happy with second.

The strange part of the race was that I didn't see Peter. Not even once. He also didn't seem to show up in the results sheet. So strange since I'm sure he must have been there so he could stay in his own good books.

[Lister Farrar]

I think anyone who did a ride this morning should get +50 winter gloating points

Does riding to and from the coffee shop count? It's in the club spirit ya know!

Pete sent his twin to the 'ride'; maybe that counts as attending?

Congrats to TT'rs. I can't imagine how you even got there, even with Roland claiming it was warmer that side of the city. That's got to be worth more than 50 GPs.

[Josh.E]

I was planning on packing it in when I first went out in the morning and saw the roads in fernwood, but I decided to just start heading out there slowly, and see how it went.
Oak Bay was by far the worst area for ice. As soon as you came over the hill on pandora heading into downtown, around the macdonalds, no more ice.
By the time we were in Langford, the roads were good, just a bit wet.