No Words

I really do not have the words to describe yesterday's race, a 27 mile tt in Carnation, Washington. But I will try.

First, I was not in a good mood driving to the race, having had a little tiff with my gf over the race and the rest of our day's plans.

The weather was chilly, cloudy and steady light rain, just like it has been for 90% of 2011. I got to the staging area and set my trainer up under a nice awning at Tolt Middle School. There were lots of riders warming up and it felt pretty neat to be lined up like that. At one point I went back to my truck for water and saw a guy in alter ego bib shorts on his trainer. I asked if he was on the team and he said "no," but that he had met Evan in Hawaii. I do not remember his name. He said he read my blog reports all the time which was nice though it made me feel like a blog hog.

Once again I was on my single speed and was the first racer in the Masters 4/5s, starting 2 minutes behind the last Women's 4 entrant. And once again I was the sole single speed entrant. It was a one foot standing start and soon I was on my way and in my rhythm. My 30 seconds rider did not catch me for 9 minutes which was a boost. Arounf the 5 mile mark we hit a one lane construction zone, forcing me to stop for 10 seconds for traffic. The roads were very rough with little or no shoulder, and there was a ton of debris (ie rocks) in the shoulders forcing the riders to stay in the main road.

A few miles later I had what could be my worst case of road rage ever, a large pickup truck that did not give me any room when it passed. There was no on-coming traffic and it had a great deal of room but it did not use it, driving very close to me at around 50 mph. I gave it a "what the heck" hand gestire (nothing crude) and he soon engaged me in several minutes of verbal abuse and hand gestures and racing engines and fast breaking. At one point I was very concerned for my safety and soon decided this was not worth dying for. It is amazing that certain "people" have not accepted cyclists as equals. They never will.


I then had a front flat at around the 54 min mark, forcing a 10 min stop to change the flat. I had issues with removing the damaged tube and there was a lot of vehicular traffic flying by at high speeds just a few feet away from me, making for a tense situation. Unlike the previous tt in Green Valley however, many racers and rec riders asked if I needed help. I did have my pump and was soon on my way.

Then, with about 7 miles to go we hit a roundabout and there were no directions or course marshals. Another rider and I went left, going about 2.5 miles on the wrong road, making for about a 5 mile wrong way. Unbelievable! I could not belive the race did not have course marshals at this crucial juncture.

I was soon on the right road, one I have ridden several times so knew I was near the finish. I ended up riding with tw0 cat 3 women. My legs felt strong the whole way which I was quite happy with, despite the seemingly endless line of challenges.

Anyway, another tt under my belt for 2011.