SJBC Winter Series Final ITT Race Report

Got in a moderate warmup and would have like something longer. I didn't have any significant expectations coming into this event as the last ITT back in late October my powertap was on the fritz. I didn't know if my power would be anything close to what I did at San Bruno or if it might be compromised due to the aero position.

Out of the blocks I wanted to slowly get up to my target watts, but not too fast. I thought hitting 370 would be a good target, so I tried to throttle it back to around 350 for the first couple of minutes. For some reason I just wanted to go faster. The data supports this as I ended up averaging 382 watts down Santa Teresa.

When I turned onto Willow Springs my 30 second man (Daryl) in front of me was only about 12 seconds ahead. He's a lightweight climber so I figured I wouldn't catch him on the hill. Counter to when I did this race last and stayed at my threshold on the climb, today I decided to hit the climb harder. I averaged 446 watts on the climb and almost caught Daryl. I sped past him on the technical descent and motored away.

Once on Oak Glen/McKean I kicked it up a gear and decided to see what was in the tank. I went flying by John Christensen with such speed and so close to him that I actually apologized after the race for the potential scare. 402 watts leading up to the last climb.

Somehow I was able to hold 402 up the climb and then flew down the hill past the Cinnibar Golf Club entrance. Thankfully the truck at the entrance decided to let me pass first as I was doing around 43mph!!!

Crazy yet I was still averaging around 402 on the rest of McKean and then onto the slight rise on Bailey just before the downhill section. I had to scrub off about 5mph coming into the first corner, but quickly got that back upon a smooth exit from the apex.

Through the last downhill corner and back up to 43mph! The final two minutes hurt like hell. Tunnel vision was kicking in and I was finding it hard to concentrate on anything past 20 feet in front of me. Luckily I had ridden this stretch of road yesterday so I knew there wasn't any obstructions in the road.

Holding 528 watts for the last two minutes hurt oh so good. Why? Because I had just squeaked in at 37:57! My goal for 2009 was to crack the 38 minute mark and I had done it. It also puts me in some cool company with other strong TT guys who have done sub-38 times on the same ITT course over the past eleven years (35:29 is the record by Clint Graver in 2002).

All told I was really surprised I was able to hold this kind of power in the aero position. Sub-38 minutes of work at a normalized power of 406 (average was 397) feels pretty satisfying.