TT = Terrible Time

Time Trials… I’m not that good at them, but I love them (for some reason), and I can usually hold my own and occasionally pull through with a good results here and there. Today’s TT was graced with some of the worst weather the event has ever seen. This TT is run every year on the same course, and it’s usually pretty darn hot out there. Today was quite different. Torrential rain, standing water on the corners that was inches deep, horrible.

It all started off badly when my trainer I was warming up on got wet, and that somehow broke it. Not sure how but I ended up with zero resistance. Fine. So I went to see if any of the team trainers were free, but the awning under t team van was jam packed with guys warming up trying to keep out of the rain, and they were using all the trainers. So that left me in the pissing rain doing more cooling than warming.

I felt fairly good and smooth once I got going, and although the power and HR were right around where I’d expect, something isn’t quite right. The speed and time just wasn’t there are the end of the day. Now I’d like to put it down to the bad weather. I never perform well in the wet and/or cold, but I have feeling there’s something else going on. Admittedly I don’t like the fork angle on my TT bike and was therefore maybe a little too cautious going round the soaking wet corners, but still. Maybe my bars are too low, maybe I just plain suck. The course was very wet and dangerous throughout the 20km event, and gravel and swimming pools had gathered on the corners. Funnily enough though, my time was better this year than last, but I was lower down in the results. Last year I was 6^th, and this year I was 10^th. However I bettered my time by 1min 4 seconds. And if I had done today’s time last year, I would have been 3^rd last year. I don’t remember it being windy or anything last year, but I guess it must have been.

Julien Almansa did NOT catch me after all. However I DID catch my 2 minute man a little before the finish line. So no one won the competition to see how long it would take Almansa to catch me… though he did take time out of me as he finished 3^rd at the end of the day.

Well, there’s some homework to do before next weekend’s TT (though it’s a bit bloody late now. J ) Maybe I’ll start pulling a car behind me on a rope when I do my TT training from now on…