Not 200 miles but 100

km that is, yes, all I managed this weekend was a metric century. My cold is a bit worse but I still managed a respectable ride at the OBRA Team Time Trials. We began the ride as a 3 person team. One of our riders chose to not ride in the rain. We were having some very unsettled conditions and saw several storm cells go through dropping rain along with gusting winds. There was even hail though not while we were on the course. I learned a few things today. I corner fairly well. If I was pulling I'd have to soft pedal to allow my teammates to regroup behind me, if I were in the back I'd soft pedal before the corner so I'd not have to brake as I'd catch right back up to them coming out of the turn. I'm a little better into the wind. I'd be pulling fairly hard, heart rate in the 160's, riding about 19-20 and when I'd drop to under 19 I'd signal for a lead change........only to see our speed drop farther with my teammates pulling. Experience, which we lacked as a team, would have had us rotate quickly through the other two riders so I was back in the lead. I only needed a minute or so to see my heart rate drop below 145 and be ready to pull again.

The one thing that did go as expected........... I am not a sprinter and told my teammates so. I was in the lead as we made our final approach to the finish line. I hear one of my teammates say something to the effect of "sprint!" and I glance down at my speedometer and see it as it changes from 26.9 to 27.0 mph. I'm thinking "sprint"? What do you think I'm doing right now? They answered my unspoken question by coming around me at nearly 30 mph. I put more power to the pedals and did my best to latch on. We crossed the finish line in a pretty tight group. John Henry was the lead bike, David was about a half bike length back, and I was a bike length behind David. As I crossed the line the official timer on our run stopped. I'm sure we'll have race results posted by tomorrow.
We passed our one minute lead team and our two minute lead team. With 2 1/2 laps in we were passed by our 1 minute back team and with only a couple of miles to go we were slowly passed by our 3 minute back team. I was in the lead and took it up a notch and was slowly closing the gap on them. I thought I could catch them but didn't think I'd have enough left to make a clean pass. I wasn't sure of the rules and if I'd be allowed to catch them then sit in their draft for a minute or so before slingshotting around them. I figured my teammates would know. When we were about 100 feet from them I signaled a lead change. Unfortunately we couldn't keep up with them. They were well within sight as we crossed the finish line behind them.

All in all, not a bad showing for the rookie racer. My second day with an OBRA racing license. (the first being the 2008 Race Across Oregon)

My average heart rate was 136
Maximum heart rate 171
Average cadence 94
Fun....off the chart!

John Henry's account of today's ride is HERE


............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......28................0.............0..........28
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......934...............0..............0.........934
May........731...............0..............0.........731
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....3929...............0..............5.........3935