New England TT Championship Recap - by Mike Kirby

I woke up Saturday morning and checked the forecast.  Rain and 10mph wind….Yes!!!  I love racing in bad weather.  Most people are overly timid in the rain so I decided I was going to ride aggressively.

I arrived at the race early and drove the course.  I knew the course from last years race but I wanted a quick refresher.  It is a moderately technical course and there are a few areas where you can lose a lot of time if you don't manage the course carefully.

I laid out my plan for the day.  Start off easy (This is my plan every TT but I am not always good at this!) for the first 2 miles, zone 5 efforts through the climbs in miles 2 to 4, 8.5 to 9.5 and 11 to 12 with high zone 4 the remainder of the way with a dip into high zone 3 on the downhills if I needed a bit more recovery. One of the strongest riders in the race started directly in front of me and I wanted to make sure I caught or passed him by mile 8.5 as from here to the finish there are lots of twists and turns and it's easy for someone to get out of sight. 

I started my warm-up only to see that my heart rate was 285!  A bit of addrennaline maybe but certainly not 285.  Those of you that know me know that I am a numbers guy and not having a working heart monitor was going to drive me crazy.  I went back to my car and thankfully I had an extra heart rate strap in my bag (BTW, who carries an extra heart rate strap in their bag!). 

I finished my warm-up and got to the start line a bit later than I wanted to but enough time to get focussed. 

The first two miles went to plan and I was 10 watts below my target for the day which is where I want to be.  I took the first turn aggressively and picked up the pace as we were hitting the first set of climbs.  That's when my power meter starting going haywire!  It would read 0 for 10 seconds or so, then the correct power for 10 seconds or so and then zero, etc.  It obviously screwed up the average but it came on enough to give me a general feel which is all I really needed.

I did a quick time check against the guy in front of me and by mile 3 I had made up 10 seconds and by mile 4 20 seconds.  Throughout the climb he kept looking back so I knew it would only be a matter of time before I caught him.  He wasn't focussed and was obviously losing time by looking backwards. 

The next 3.5 miles were rollers into a downhill with a tight 90 degree turn with sand on both sides.

I stayed about 10 seconds back until the turn where the rider in front of me took it very slowly.  I hit the corner hard and thankfully made it through unscathed.  I was now only a few seconds back and passed the rider around mile 8.

I hit the woods at mile 8.5 and picked up the pace for a mile though rollers that went progressive uphill.  I stayed on pace until mile 11 where once again it was time to drop the hammer for a while.  After a quick recovery it was time to go all out for the last mile to the finish. 

It is mostly slightly downhill until 250 meters to go where the race organizers kindly installed a nice 6% climb to the finish just as your legs are about to fall off!

I crossed the line feeling good about my performance and knowing that I had at least secured a podium spot but feeling like I was going to win as I took 1 minute and 3 seconds off last years time where I came in second, 23 seconds back.

I finished my race at 11:40 and it only took the organizers until 1pm to post the results!  Nothing like sitting around in and waiting for results!  It was worth the wait as it turns out I Won!  

I love riding my TT bike and participating in time trials.  I've blown up during races more times than I wish to recall but I have to say that it all came together today!