Just a Few Seconds

It never ceases to amaze me how multiple entirely independent, radio-free, time trial teams can end up with such similar times at the end of a 40 kilometer race.  Yesterday was our annual NOBC 2-Person Time Trial, a fairly low-key but always fun event for which I usually pull double duty as both race official and competitor (a situation that would no doubt cause wringing of hands among the USAC National Commisaire crowd).  We typically pull off this race on a shoestring and at a slight loss, so lots of other club members are also in similar situations.  The day started for me around 5 am when I fired up the coffee maker and started loading up the station wagon.  By the time the first of our race volunteers arrived at the staging area just north of I-10 near LaPlace, LA, I already had the car unloaded, the pop-up shelter popped up and the finish line flag waving in the southerly wind.

Registration went pretty smoothly, despite the USAC's new online pre-registration system that prints rather un-helpful rider names and categories in the lower right corner of the pre-printed release forms..... upside-down.  No, we do not use ring binders for the release forms and yes, we do want to write the race numbers in the upper right corners of the release forms and yes, we also want to be able to read the license numbers and names for data entry ... right side up, and no, we do not want the system to try to assign bib numbers, especially since both riders on a team get the same number. Turnout was a bit down, since we were missing a few riders who were up at the Tour of Tuscaloosa in AL, and a few of the collegiate riders who were over at the Baylor race in Waco, TX. Anyway, we closed registration right on time, got our start lists printed and posted, and sent off our first rider right at 9 am as planned.  That's when I jumped into my car and squeezed into my skinsuit, taking off my official's hat and putting on my antique TT helmet.  As I'd done for the past few years, I would be riding with Jorge Perera who is a much better time trialist than I, so I was expecting to suffer.

This year's race had a pretty nice tailwind on the way out and of course a correspondingly harsh headwind on the way back.  We started out fairly smoothly (I think Jorge missed his first clip-in attempt) and were soon rolling north at 27-28 mph.  I was already wondering how much we should be holding back in anticipation of the long return trip into the wind.  By the time we were halfway out to the turnaround I could tell that Jorge was riding a lot stronger than I, but without speaking a word we both made the appropriate adjustments with Jorge taking longer pulls.  Even so, things felt pretty good all the way to the turnaround.

The return trip was mostly right into the wind, which wasn't terribly strong, but nonetheless dropped our speed down into the 24-25 mph range.  The 24 mph part would be me; the 25 mph part would be Jorge.  There were a few times when, even after a short pull of maybe 30 pedal strokes (yeah, I'm a stroke counter) I still had a little trouble getting back onto Jorge's wheel smoothly.  The whole way back I was just looking at speed and distance on my computer, while Jorge was looking at time.  When we got within five kilometers of the finish Jorge started taking longer and faster pulls.  I would get in a couple of good pulls, and then need to take a couple of short ones to recover, and despite that we were still dropping down one to one-half mph every time I was on the front.  I think Jorge pulled most of the last kilometer, and after we crossed the line he told me he was trying to get us there in under 56 minutes.  We ended up just ten seconds over at 56:10.  Whenever I finish a TT and think about a difference of ten or fifteen seconds I always think, "Damn, I could have gone just that little bit faster if I'd known it would be that close."  Our time got us 2nd place in the Master 40+ class.  The winners of the 40+ race were a couple of guys from Bike Barn in Houston who also posted the fastest time of the day at 54:30. Definitely more than just a few seconds faster.