Nationals Individual Time Trial Race
Report
--Payne Griffin
The TT course was a 20 km out and back on Antelope Island in
the middle of the Great Salt Lake. It was incredible scenery, and during the
pre-ride I paid more attention to the roaming buffalo and the antelope than the
course.
Anyway the winds had picked up
during the day, so by my start time at
12:50, there was a moderate head wind going out and a cross wind coming back. I
was feeling awesome and knew I was going to have a great ride. At the start at
the 2nd set, the 5th km, I upped the tempo a bit and
caught my 1:00 man. I was gaining on my 30-second person too, as he was
probably around 15 seconds in front of me by now.
At 10 km, the turnaround point, I had started to fatigue a
bit, so I backed off a little for the third set of 5k. However, I began to feel
better a little later and ramped the tempo back up for the remaining 7k of the
race. By this time I had caught two more people, (I am not sure where they
started), but my 30 second person was still out there as I continued to chase
him.
He began to pull away and I was concerned I would lose him so
I kept going with the new intention of keeping him within 30sec of me. With 4 k
to go, the course pitched upwards for a small climb. I was riding an 11/23, so I
wish I had a 25 but I just hoped out of the saddle and grinded up the climb. I
closed the gap between the two of us a bit on the climb but I was maxed out
when I hit the top so he made a lot of time on the flat and descent to the
finish. I hit the last 3k so hard that after the race I collapsed and had to be
helped up by the medical staff.
In the end, I placed 3rd in D2, and 4th
out of all the collegiate riders here. My time was 28:06:56. The 30-second person
I was chasing stopped the clock at 28:06:57, so I got him by .01 seconds. Phew.
I was 10 seconds off of the 2nd place time.
When looking at my power numbers, I averaged 360 watts during
the ITT. (Which I thought to be surprisingly low, as it is below my ftp. I had
borrowed an 808 powertap from duke, and they told me that the the powertap
measured low and the elevation probably effected that some.) With those numbers
and my weight of 67.5 kg, I averaged 5.333 w/kg.
In reflection, I went out too hard, and should have paced
myself better at the beginning. It Is a really difficult thing to do, so I need
to work on that a lot. I started to fade much earlier than I had wanted to, but
I feel like I was able to recover and save the rest of the ride.
We are about to go out and preride the crit. I race at 3:00
pm MT today for 75 min.
