Tundra Time Trial

Today was the Tundra Time Trial, the first race of my 2016 season.  Surge Sports always does a great job putting on this event.  And - as usual - the Tundra lived up to its name.  Brr!

This was the 13th year of the Tundra TT.  It used to be held on the Silver Comet Trail, but that got a little too dicey with the pedestrians and other cyclists.  Several years ago, Tundra was moved north to Adairsville.  That was a great course.  Then, two years ago it moved to another good route in Cumming.  Last year Surge Sports wasn't able to host the Tundra, and so Reality Bikes took the reins and held it at the Cumming course again.  This year there was some discussion about which organization would host Tundra.  They finally decided to have Surge Sports take over again with the usual February race, and Reality Bikes will host a different time trial in Cumming in July.  I'm glad it worked out this way because I welcome an additional time trial on a rather skimpy Georgia racing calendar.

Surge Sports moved Tundra to yet another location this year: north Coweta County/south Fulton County.  It's a familiar location to me.  Today's course was almost exactly the same as the short TT course in the Peachtree Bikes TT series several years ago, hosted at Serenbe.  It's an excellent area to race or just ride.  Known as Silk Sheets, metro Atlanta cyclists love riding in this low-traffic area.  Not only have I raced TTs here a number of times, but also I've ridden some of the same roads as part of the Silk Sheets 200K brevet.

By the way, I have a funny story about riding in the Silk Sheets area.  The Peachtree Bikes series also had a longer TT course that was a big rectangle, about 22 miles long.  I had done this longer time trial about four times before I did my first Silk Sheets 200K.  The brevet course intersected the TT course at the northwest corner of the TT rectangle.  As I approached this intersection on the brevet from the opposite direction from which I had raced through it, I noticed a monstrous house right on the corner.  Although the house is seemingly impossible to miss, I had never seen it during any of the TTs!  That just goes to show the intensity of racing at threshold power.

Today's forecast called for clear skies and temperatures in the upper 20s to lower 30s.  Yikes.  My first thought was to forego wearing a skinsuit and simply dress for warmth.  I was thinking bib tights, a base layer, a long-sleeved jersey, and my Georgia Neuro team jacket, which is great for such low temperatures.  Robert advised that I would be too warm if I raced in my jacket.  Instead, he recommended that I borrow his old long-sleeved skinsuit and his long-sleeved base layer with a windproof front.  Then, all I had to do was add some knee warmers.  (I still wore my other planned cold weather gear, including heavy-duty gloves, shoe covers, and a hat under my helmet.)  Robert was right; I was actually pretty comfortable temperature-wise while I was racing.  Besides, as I wore his old Security Bank skinsuit with the striped sleeves, I was reminded of Waldo, as in Where's Waldo?  Except Waldo had turned blue in the tundra-like conditions.

Although Robert has given up time trials to focus on road races, I'm grateful for all of his previous tutelage in time trial logistics.  I checked in, pinned on my own number, set up my trainer, and had plenty of time to warm up before my start time.  Maybe it's having a little more race experience, or maybe it's just getting older, but I didn't feel nearly as nervous before my race as I have in the past.  Or maybe I was just too cold to notice.

I resumed TT training about six weeks ago.  I've done intervals once a week, usually on Sundays.  The only problem is that Peach Peloton is on Saturdays.  That means that my power has been way down on TT practice days - conflicting training goals.  Oh well, I guess my TT training was adequate because I was able to hold an average of 211 W today.  I was shooting for 210 W.  When I've really been focusing on TT training, my threshold power is 215 W.  So, I was definitely satisfied with my power output today.  Incidentally, my average speed was 20.8 mph, a little less than I expected because of the wind.  This is a good example of why power is such a better metric than average speed.

Being familiar with the course really helped me.  I knew that the portion on Hutcheson Ferry had a few punchy climbs.  Climbing is my cycling forte; therefore, I tried to use it to my advantage.  I rode as hard as I could up the hills, hoping to pick up a few seconds on my competition.

I finished safely (always my biggest goal!), and I felt like I rode well.  I changed out of my race clothes and waited for the results.  Somehow I forget every year that standing around waiting for the results is always a lot colder than the Tundra race itself!

Now able to switch out of race mode, I enjoyed visiting with my TT buddies: teammates Tina and Tony, brother-in-law Robbie, Chad, Ronnie, and Pete.  Also, I was glad to meet Angela from the Sorella team.  She has just started racing; it's always good to see more women in cycling!

Pete and I outfoxed Robbie.

The race organizers and officials had to work through some snags in the timing data, but at last they sorted it out.  I was thrilled to place 1st in the Cat 4 women! (finish time of 27:35)

Robert's (early) Valentine to me was some Chuck Taylor high tops.  Best. Podium. Shoes. Ever.  (even better than the lime green sandals that I wore on the state championship podium a few years ago, but that's another story)