Something Jack Nicholson said...

Floyd Bennet Field Time Trial...

Six weeks later, (four weeks off the bike and just two weeks back on since my crash) brought me to the Floyd Bennet TT yesterday. My right leg still carries healing scars from the deep road rash and my Abductor, while much better still sends me that tiny reminder every so often.

Last season I did the race in approximately 34 minutes avg'ing 19 mph. I set my goal on a 20 mph avg this time hoping the time off the bike wouldn't have too ill an effect on me. I did the distance in Rock Lake using the "third" loop to cut out he climbs and avg'd 20 mph so I was hopeful.

The day dawned with the guarantee of a full on scorcher that would surely turn the concrete runways of FBF into a BBQ nightmare for the racers. I rode down with a buddy topdown to get the breeze and not waste the gas on AC...

We pulled in round about 8:15am giving us plenty of time to hang out and watch the early racers go off before our own warm ups. I walked around checking out all the equipment and talking to some other racers....

I'd been hydrating all day so I felt pretty good about doing the 11.5 miles sans water bottle. I decided NOT to warm up on my trainer as I wanted the breeze to help cool me as opposed to pushing watts in a stationary position while the sun cooked me. Turned out it may have been the right decision as two of us rode warmup around the lot while the other two did their revs on the trainer and had issues either during or after the race....

Start time hit, 95 degrees!. Frank Finochio's start was 2 ahead of me. I pushed out to the start line and half listened to the starters instructions.

Time Trialing, as I'm learning is a very precise science despite differing views on the best way to improve speed and aero. My game plan was to sprint out of the chute for a good ten seconds then settle in to my pace and concentrate on consistency.

Equipment:Guru Trilight TT bike, Giro Advantage Aero helmet, Ksyrium bladed wheels using Wheelbuilder wheel covers for the rear wheel essentially turning the wheel into a disc. Full sleeve Skinsuit and wind socks...

Lap 1 of the 2.3 mile course had me testing the waters. Half the course was a wind tunnel while the other was all dead air and puddles. As I hit the wind I decided to flip to my small ring and throw up a high cadence to conserve strength and rely on my aero position to help maintain an avg speed of 17/18 mph.

Once turning onto the back stretch I flipped into the 50/19 and pushed between 23 and 26 mph. I avoided the puddles and pushed on. Split time:6:06

Lap 2- I settled in feeling the heat but not too worried...yet, despite the bad venting of a good aero helmet. Hit that wind again but kept solid to the plan that I laid down for lap 1. However as I rounded the turn for the backend run I decided I was going to deliberately go through as many puddles as I could in a straight line to get some cool down from the splashback. It worked perfectly and I did that for the rest of the race. Split: 6:13

Lap 3- More of the same but started to feel the heat and fatigue which was evident in my time loss. I took a puddle too close to the muddy end and almost wiped out but held on. Split; 6:25

Lap 4- The hammer of the Gods dropped on me and I was praying to every deity I ever heard of to get me through this lap. I was hot, I was fatigued and I was hurting. Split 6:35

Lap 5- Showtime. I felt a bit better than lap 4 but not by much. I had The back end of things two and been The back end of things by two. I sliced through the wind for the last time grateful that I was past that and set in to try and make up a little time on the back stretch. I picked a rabbit and overtook him just at the last turn before the finish. I pushed as hard as I could crossing the line with a split of 6:24.

Finish time- 31:45, sixth place in my cat.

I The back end of things my goal of 20mph avg setting an avg of 21.5. I was extremely happy with my form but a bit less so with my consistency. I did however beat last year by about 3 minutes, maybe more. I have to go check my time on that.

It was a great race day all around with some great race partners despite the inferno, but as JAck Nicholson said; "BURN BABY BURN".

Eric J