TT start times, catch me when you can competition

Yesterday’s TT preparation went very well indeed. I didn’t touch the bike and had my basement (where all my bikes and bike equipment is) flooded by a freak summer storm of rain and hail. After spending the day clearing away the remains left by the river that shot through my house for a few hours, I was pretty buggered, and frankly happy to still be around after realizing that I was wading through water that had live electricity sitting in it where all my computers were plugged in.

Anyway… the TT. Sunday’s TT (for which they are still calling for rain) start times were released yesterday. On the start list are a couple very good TT riders, including a guy who was signed my Festina years ago simply for his TTing… only he turned them down for some reason. The guy crawls out of the wood-work these days a few times a year, and kills some of the pros on TTs; he also does a few triathlons now, where he paddles around in the water, sets the bike record, then goes for a strole and finishes in the top 10 in the elite. My start time is near the end, 5^th or 6^th or something form the finish. A couple of good other guys I know will also be there, so it’ll be a pretty big battle. However, what I’m really interested is that fact that the guy leaving right behind me (2 mins behind me exactly) is a chap called Julien Almansa. This guy also crawls out at the end of every season to do all the TTs he can find, and once again show the Pros what a TT should really look like. Julien was a stagiaire on US Postal a few moons ago, and now concentrates on end of season TTs and spends his time racing CycloCross up and down France and Belgium. So how long will it be before he catches and passes me? It’s a 20k TT, rolling with a fair bit of wind, and some stupidly steep sections near the end.

Place your bets as to when Julien will catch me by sending in your answer on a 700c Carbon disk rear wheel, with Ti freehub body and 11-21 Shimano Dura Ace 10 speed cassette to:

Julien crush-fest 2009 time competition

321 GoSloth street

81654 Slowville

France

The French love to put steep hills in their TTs...