Jersey Shore Time Trial - CycleTime Trial

This race experience was a blast. We all lined up at the starting tent, 30 seconds apart with a 10 second beeped countdown. I started out trying to keep the cadence high and effort reasonable. HR settled in around 160 pretty soon. We entered a state park after about 2 miles and from there we had a tailwind out and headwind back. I changed the units on my Garmin to metric and tried to break the race into 3 10K efforts. The reality was this felt like 2 15K efforts. One with the wind and one against it. I could see on the way out I was averaging about 36 KM/h. I passed by 4 folks in my group before the turnaround. I in turn was passed by 4 of the Senior Men who looked like the real deal & they were cranking out some serious power. The headwind on the way back was a whole different story. Bike handling was really important with the crosswinds. I think I passed 1 more person and was passed by another 4 or 5 from the SM group. I was really starting to feel it down the last 10 K but kept going. I pushed and pushed and looking at the clock I felt I could make it in around 51 mins. I did start to tire at the last turn, 2 of the fast guys whipped past me jockeying for position to get to the finish line. Finally made it across the line, pretty exhausted but feeling great.

Not much, this was my first TT and I really enjoyed it. My personal ambition was to see if I could average 22 MPH and I got reasonably close with 21.23. Just taking part in a race like this with guys averaging 25-26 MPH was an eye opener to the world of bike racing as opposed to triathlons. The winner cranked out the course in 40:32 averaging 27.53 mph. Amazing! I don't think I've ever seen numbers like that from anyone in a triathlon bike split.

I do think it may be time for a bike fit on my tri bike, just to dial it in and get the most from it.

http://www.njbikeracing.com/files/2010/jstt-results.pdf

Note : I put my rank in Cat 4/5 as opposed to age group. I was pretty happy that I held my own in this category.

Chatted with another competitor Michael over a coffee, got out of my wet clothes headed home.


Nothing really, I think I gave it all I had on the day. It's down to more training to get faster, esp. some more time trial efforts as part of my training regimen. I might have had a bit more in the legs if I'd not done a ~50 mile ride the day before, but I doubt it. I felt good most of the way round so no excuses.


Enjoyed it, first foray into this kind of event. Nice to see how fast the big boys and girls can go even at the amateur level.