Esparto Time Trial

By Stacy Marple
Course: 18 hot, windy, poorly paved miles
Date: August 13, 2006
Team: Stacy Marple (5th), Flavia Olivera (13th)
Category: Women 1/2/3
Winner: Amber Rais (Webcor)

Racing with Velo Promo will really take you places, places neither you nor much of anyone else ever knew existed, like Esparto. Which is near another oh-so-well-known site of a Velo Promo race, Winters (in case you wanted to orient yourself).

The morning was relatively cool and still, but that did not last for long. By some set of miracles I 1) arrived on time and 2) found a shaded parking space near the registration table -- however, these bits of good fortune lulled me into complacency, and alas, I managed to have a shorter warm-up than I'd hoped for. I did however get to see the greatest aerobar modification job ever, done by Flavia-you'll have to ask her about it. I also overheard some dude talk about how he'd just broken his collar bone on the TT course due to a rather large wheel-sucking crevasse -- I was happy to have the warning to look out for that. I was also pretty psyched b/c I had FULL TT gear for once! Watch out folks!

The course was hot with mostly bad pavement and two wheel-sucking crevasses with no marking whatsoever. The first 1/3 was flat, then as you turned to head to the turn-around there were some rollers. These managed to be painful but they never forced me out of my big ring, and I only had to get out of the saddle twice. I caught what I thought was my one-minute person in about 8 minutes and got my 2-minute person just before the turnaround. It felt like a honkin' head wind on the way out, and as I pushed harder and harder I just kept thinking, tail wind home, tail wind home. I turned around and realized that I had become rabbit extraordinaire for the woman I'd just passed so easily, and she was hangin on pretty well. I also saw Amber WAY too soon after the turnaround and could tell she had put some serious time into me. At this point I realized that 1) the turnaround was more than 1/2 way and 2) what I had thought was the pain of a head wind was actually the pain of riding up a false flat, and NOW I was in the actual headwind. My legs felt terrible across the rollers, but then it happened: I entered that beautiful time trial space where all pain subsides and you become just a breathing, drooling pair of legs. It's the feeling that kept me in triathlon for a year, the feeling that has me out on 6-hour rides whenever I can find the time. I knew I was not going all that fast, that I was beat up from Patterson, and that Amber was definitely going to beat me, but I did not care. When I felt I was close enough I decided to practice sprinting and got out of the saddle and gave it all I had for the line, almost catching my 3-minute person.

I finished somewhere around 45:30 or so and in about 6th place. not nearly the result I'd hoped for (my goal had been to get under 45 minutes) but I was happy enough just to time trial. I may not be the fastest timetrialist out there, but I still love 'em.