The past training week has been super easy as I am transitioning to cyclocross for the remainder of the year after a long spring and summer of skinny tires. This was a welcome dead weekend on the race schedule for me so I volunteered to drive the support vehicle for the MetLife men's team entered in the ABR 4-Man Team Time Trial "World" Championship. The team was a quartet of a bad-ass masters - Mike Jones, Josh Mallan, Paul Swinand and "Time Trial" Ted Westerheide. All of them are extremely strong, hard-working, talented athletes who had a legitimate shot at defending the 30+ Masters title. I was happy to do whatever I could to help them. My only demand was hot, black coffee to awaken me at that ridiculous hour - and they delivered!
The guys start time was 9:15am which necessitated an early (5:15am!) departure to allow adequate travel and warm-up time (since, in their own words, they're old and need extra time to get warm). The course was 60K long with a fair amount of turns on primarily flat roads. There were a few small grades on occasion but nothing difficult. It appeared that while the corn was still up, there wasn't much shelter to be had. The wind was definitely going to be a factor on an otherwise perfect day for racing - temp in the mid 70s, nothing but sunny skies.
We rolled in, parked, registered and I went to work making sure that numbers were pinned, extra wheels were in the car, tires were up to pressure, bottles were filled and all the guys had everything they needed before start time. They'd worked together in the previous weeks to figure out the best rider order to use on race day and spent time practicing exchanges and doing some rotating paceline work - team time trialing is a difficult thing to do so this type of work is essential in helping to be more comfortable on race day.
They rolled off the start and up to speed quite smoothly and were a solid working unit for the majority of the first half of the TT - everyone rotating through, working at the front and passing a lot of earlier starting teams along the way. Things were going great until a minor mishap occurred at about 30K coming out of a left hand turn that had a bit of debris. Josh and Paul got through the turn fine but Mike appeared to have adjusted his line which unfortunately caused a slight crossing of wheels that sent Ted sliding to the pavement. By the time I pulled off to the side of the road to help, Ted was already back up, getting on his bike and hauling ass to get back up to the guys who had eased up a bit to wait. Once they were all together it didn't take long to ease back into their rotation and get up to speed. I wasn't watching the clock while this all happened but I have to think that they probably lost somewhere between 30sec and 1min when Ted went down. I was just happy that he was okay (only a little road rash) and that no one else had gone down with him.
Author's Note: We decided on the ride home that from now on "getting jonesed" will officially be how we'll refer to getting wrecked on the bike. Sorry Mike - had to include that...
It was clear from my vantage point that they started to really kick things into high gear as they entered the final 7-8mi or so. In fact they'd cranked it up so much that Paul took one last pull at the front at about 4mi out and sat up - he'd done all he could to help the team today. That was totally okay because timing was taken from the rear wheel of the 3rd rider to cross the finish line. Mike, Ted and Josh hammered all-out the rest of the way and posted a time that held up for the remainder of the day, giving them the 30+ title and overall 4th fastest time on the day. They averaged close to 27mph!
Aside from the outrageously long wait we had to endure for results to be posted and medals distributed, it turned out to be a most excellent day. 4th fastest time on the day? Pretty darn good for a bunch of guys who do this stuff for fun. I was happy to spend my Sunday helping them and appreciate the opportunity to be part of it.
Up next: A trip to Kentucky and the first cross race of the season....
The guys start time was 9:15am which necessitated an early (5:15am!) departure to allow adequate travel and warm-up time (since, in their own words, they're old and need extra time to get warm). The course was 60K long with a fair amount of turns on primarily flat roads. There were a few small grades on occasion but nothing difficult. It appeared that while the corn was still up, there wasn't much shelter to be had. The wind was definitely going to be a factor on an otherwise perfect day for racing - temp in the mid 70s, nothing but sunny skies.
We rolled in, parked, registered and I went to work making sure that numbers were pinned, extra wheels were in the car, tires were up to pressure, bottles were filled and all the guys had everything they needed before start time. They'd worked together in the previous weeks to figure out the best rider order to use on race day and spent time practicing exchanges and doing some rotating paceline work - team time trialing is a difficult thing to do so this type of work is essential in helping to be more comfortable on race day.
They rolled off the start and up to speed quite smoothly and were a solid working unit for the majority of the first half of the TT - everyone rotating through, working at the front and passing a lot of earlier starting teams along the way. Things were going great until a minor mishap occurred at about 30K coming out of a left hand turn that had a bit of debris. Josh and Paul got through the turn fine but Mike appeared to have adjusted his line which unfortunately caused a slight crossing of wheels that sent Ted sliding to the pavement. By the time I pulled off to the side of the road to help, Ted was already back up, getting on his bike and hauling ass to get back up to the guys who had eased up a bit to wait. Once they were all together it didn't take long to ease back into their rotation and get up to speed. I wasn't watching the clock while this all happened but I have to think that they probably lost somewhere between 30sec and 1min when Ted went down. I was just happy that he was okay (only a little road rash) and that no one else had gone down with him.
Author's Note: We decided on the ride home that from now on "getting jonesed" will officially be how we'll refer to getting wrecked on the bike. Sorry Mike - had to include that...
It was clear from my vantage point that they started to really kick things into high gear as they entered the final 7-8mi or so. In fact they'd cranked it up so much that Paul took one last pull at the front at about 4mi out and sat up - he'd done all he could to help the team today. That was totally okay because timing was taken from the rear wheel of the 3rd rider to cross the finish line. Mike, Ted and Josh hammered all-out the rest of the way and posted a time that held up for the remainder of the day, giving them the 30+ title and overall 4th fastest time on the day. They averaged close to 27mph!
Aside from the outrageously long wait we had to endure for results to be posted and medals distributed, it turned out to be a most excellent day. 4th fastest time on the day? Pretty darn good for a bunch of guys who do this stuff for fun. I was happy to spend my Sunday helping them and appreciate the opportunity to be part of it.
Up next: A trip to Kentucky and the first cross race of the season....
