2009 Fiorucci State Senior Time Trial Championships

Posted by Dan on 24. June 2009 04:55

Day Two of our Championship Weekend found us in Stony Creek, VA, on I-95 just south of Petersburg for the 2009 running of the Fiorucci VA State Senior Time Trial Championships. This was a killer 40K (40km if you want to be correct, which I usually do) time trial on an access road running parallel to I-95. 20K out, 20K back. The weather was much more conducive to competitive cycling with temps in the low to mid-80s, but the winds could have been a bit more... consistent? wunderground.com forecast 10-15mph winds from the WNW shifting to N later in the day. What I found was winds that were blowing at 15 mph, gusting up to nearly 20 mph and coming from wherever you were least expecting them to.

So here goes: we got up at 6:00, loaded the usual TT gear into the van (TT kit includes bike, clothign, gear bag, pump, trainer and 2 kids). We stopped for Gatorade and coffee and then headed west to 460. Arriving nearly an hour and a half prior to my start time of 10:23, we setup the tent, trainer and bike. Got registered, dressed and warmed up with enough time to hit the porta-potty and run down the road, shifting around to give the appearance I knew what was going on.

Of 16 Cat 4 riders lined up alphabetically, I was in 14th in line. Ahead of me was Dominik Meier and Matt Keane, the BAR contenders with a strong desire to turn in a good time and Chris McMillan, winner of PLT #1 with a time that made me whimper a bit. Oddly enough, there was a gap in the line where one Chris McMillan should have been, so I was filled with hope for a good finish.

At 10:22.30, I moved to the line and thanked the official for complimenting my bike. If you like getting compliments on your bike, get one of these from East Coast Bicycles. I've been complimented at every time trial so far this year. At 10:23 on the dot, I was given the green light and took off like a bat out of Manhattan at 5 PM on Friday. I actually chose the right gear this time and was able to get my cadence right without running up the power. I quickly settled into position and checked my PowerTap for confirmation that what I felt was about 300 watts was in fact 300 watts and not 500. My PowerTap, eager as always to provide me the data I so desperately craved, told me I was doing 27 mph with a steadily increasing heart rate of 155 and a power output of 150 watts. Yeah, 150 watts.

This is one of those demoralizing moments that can wreck your whole ride. I know I've been riding a lot - boosting training by about 25% in the past few weeks. I've done a lot of 3+ hour rides and a ton of sweet spot training, not to mention doing a pretty fast 20 mile crit the day before. Could I have finally overtrained to the point where I couldn't get my power above 200? On the other hand, was it mathematically possible to ride 27 mph in ANY sort of wind on a flat-ish stetch of road with only 150 watts? Probably not. PowerTap MUST be broken. So now I have no power to go by (which is fine, as constantly watching power in a TT will unnecessarily restrict your performance) and a heart rate that I've been unable to get anywhere near my typical TT rate. Not much to be done now, though, was there? So I quit looking at the thing and road hard enough to cause very heavy breathing. It seemed to be working because I passed a ton of people.

The road had a few good downhill stretches, but not enough to get into 56x11. 56x15 maybe. The uphills were pretty weak too. The biggest hurdle of this ride was the wind. Trucks headed south on 95 would cause a blast of air to rush over from the interestate. The actual winds were coming from the WNW, so there was a solid crosswind anytime I rode by a field on the west side of the road. My wheel choice was the standard HED-3 and aero disk covers which actually seemed ok. The trick to aero wheels like these is your speed and the resulting relative wind speed and angle. If you're going fast enough, a dead-on crosswind will still hit you at a relative angle that results in drag that can be reduced with a good wheel. That speed is generally > 25 mph, so I don't think I was hindered at all by riding the tri-spoke.



The rest of the ride was your typical time trial stuff. Hurt a lot, lots of sweating, cursing and weaving. A lot of soreness in places that you just don't want being sore - ever. The finish line eventually revealed itself and I let loose with what could be loosely called a sprint. About 30 seconds after I finished, I heard the familiar voice of Chris McMillan. Apparently he missed his time but rolled to the line shortly after I left and was allowed to start. He seemed to have had a pretty good ride, but lost a lot of time due to the late start.

When the results were posted, I was in 2nd place with a time of 0:57:27. First place went to Matt Keane of Fat Frogs Racing Team with a time of 0:57:10. And that put a lid on the state time trial championships. First thing we'd do on Monday morning is contact Saris Cycling Group for help on why my PowerTap let me down. Average power for the whole race was reported as 201 watts, yet analyticcycling.com says I'd need something on the order of 317 watts to pull that off.

Here are the results (xls) as posted on the vacycling.org listserv.

Pictures were graciously taken by Lydia and showcased on GamJams. You can see them here.

Keep reading for Saturday's Virginia State Senior Championship Criterium report.