Willow Time Trial

A sky full of clouds and somewhat cool temperatures greeted me as I arrived at Willow Metropark at 7:20am. My start time was not untill 10:04:30, but I was supposed to be Darrell today.

Darrell could not be at the time trial due to a work conflict taking him around the world. He asked me to make sure James had everything he needed. So when I showed up I helped him set up his trainer and his bike. He is a pretty self sufficient kid, there was not much I had to do, just talk to him mostly.

David, Chris and I stood on the side of the roac near the start line to watch James and the other Velo Club juniors. I was on standby with a spare wheelset in case James flatted, and yes it did have a junior cassette. James was riding his rear disc wheel, which was a sail in the wind. That slowed him down and he finished with a time of 34:01 not too far off his goal of 34:34. Alexy put in a nice ride finishing 27 seconds ahead of James with a time of 34:34. However, the Cat I/II best rider was two minutes slower than last year. That just shows how hard the course was this year. Good job James and Alexy!

As James cooled off, I warmed up on my trainer. My college roomate Ryan showed up and helped me pin my numbers on. I got everthing finalized, closed the car, handed ryan my spare wheels and I rode around with DMO.

I talked to James and he gave me a tip on wind direction. The north and east parts of the course were fast. But as you turn onto the south portion, you are just slammed with a 20+mph wind. Yay.

As I rolled up to the start line, Cat and my mom drove in. Cat jumped out of the car as the official said "30 seconds" So she was a little stressed by cutting it so close. I started 30 seconds behind Eric, 30 seconds ahead of DMO and a minute ahead of Tony. Other SLC riders included Chris Aten, John Burrows and Dominick Zaccone. Thats 7 riders in a feild of 14 riders! We had HALF the feild. We were represented greatly and we came out to win.

As I jumped from the start to begin my TT I was feeling pretty good. I had Ryan at the start finish line yelling out lap times. I was off my goal pace, but I was still moving faster than last year. The wind really took a lot out of me. Durring our race it started gusting even strong, making riding harder. I have been behind in my training due to school and so I have plenty of endurance, but no strength right now. To make me feel worse, DMO passed me on the first corner of my second lap. Tony passed me too, on my 5th lap.

In the end my goal was 31:00 but I was well off that pace with a final time of 31:52. That was good enough for 7th place. I was really upset as I crossed the line, but I realized that there was not much I could do about it. I went as hard as I could and I was faster than last year so I am happy. But the awesome thing...

SOUTH LYON CYCLING TEAM cleaned up! We took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th. David, Chris and Tony were our podium riders (in that order.) If you would like to see a picture of those three please see Bikeboy's page. Awesome job by SOUTH LYON on Saturday! We are already off to a nice start in the Michigan Challenge Series.