Central Valley Classic Time Trial

By Brooke Miller
Date: March 10, 2006
Category: Women 1/2
Filed Size: About 60
Teammates: Kelly (guest)
Place: 37th
Winner: Christine Thorburn, Webcor-Platinum

Well, Kelly and I drove down last night eager for our hill climb. I had only met her briefly at McLane last weekend and we were both excited to test our legs on the monster climb.

The weather set in. With forecasts of snow and freezing weather, we were on the edge of our seats hoping that we could still torture ourselves up a big hill. Word was that there was a "slight chance" that the course would be changed to a flat time trial and that they would let us know at 8 AM.

Well, 8AM rolls around and apparently there was snow and ice at the BASE of the hill, so no luck-we would be doing a flat time trial. The race promoters were trying to stick with the sportsmanship thing and told everyone to race what they had been planning on racing. Kelly had one dope TT bike (with Ivan Basso signature on it) sitting in her car in case of a flat time trial. We decided that it would be best to not piss people off by rocking the pimp TT bike and just rode the road bikes. I would have sported my imaginary TT bike, but again, sprit of competition.

I guess that it was a good thing that we did not do the hill climb, because we were in the middle of the valley and as we were warming up, the sky opened up and dumped out chunks of this wet, white chunky stuff. It was snowing! HARD. Crazy. Fortunately, by the start of the race, the snowing had stopped and we had intermittent drizzly rain instead. Not bad. We got lucky and Kelly started just in front of me.

For me, I have always hated TT's and done poorly at them. More than anything, I had trouble pacing and pushing myself. I just got a powermeter and let me give a little sales pitch for powermeters: I LOVE it. My goal for this race was to see how I could do racing with the power, and seeing if I could use it to pace myself. For the first time, I enjoyed the TT and realized I could be good at it.

Kelly is a great time trialer (or ist, again, what's your preference?) as she comes from a tri background. I was eager to get to use her as a minute woman, but she was off down the road and then some, so I got my powermeter and me.

This race was all about learning for me. I learned more in this one time trial than in any other that I have ever raced. I did not go particularly fast, I finished pretty far down there, I had a full sprint left at the finish-even at the 1km to go, I was feeling remarkably spunky (read: did not go NEARLY hard enough), but I can't begin to say how much my whole perception of the TT has changed. I know now that I can be a decent TT rider-I just have a lot to learn. I was using my powermeter in a good way to push me when I was drifting back on my speed, over the rollers when I would step back. That was good. But, I was also paranoid that I can't pace myself and would go to hard. So, I was relying on my powermeter to hold me back. That was good for the first few miles, but then I should have opened it up and gone for it. Live and learn.

Kelly's race was a disappointment for her. I know that it was frustrating for her to have Ivana, her pimped out TT bike in the car while other women had areo setups. And some days you just don't have it. She was frustrated with her performance, but she still finished 27th.

All and all, we had a good race. We lucked out with the weather (and a ride home from the finish when we were freezing and not wanting to ride back!) and learned a ton. We both had a good perspective about this being an early season race where we are learning and getting faster... and I have a lot left in the tank for tomorrow. And I am HUNGRY for tomorrow's race! Can't wait!