Monrovia TT #4

Second race out there, and I like the course. It's not completely flat, but not bad. Tailwind on the way out, fight on the way back. Still managed to take some more time off last time's time. Another personal best.

Overall it was good day. I just came up a bit short, oh I set a new PR of 60:43, but it's that last 43 seconds to break the hour mark that's more important to me.

An unusual tailwind accompanied the riders for the first half then made us pay coming back. I was really encouraged to see my average speed in excess of 25mph for the first 20k. A horrible locomotive sound could be heard from my bike nearly the entire time. I lost at least 20 seconds leaning down twice to open up my rear brake hoping that was the source of the noise. The headwind coming back made it very difficult to find any speed. Now as my computer registered my average falling below 24mph during the final 2 miles I became really discouraged. I was pleasently surprised though as I turned over the the stopwatch to find it just crossing 1 hour with the finish in sight. Turns out my computer has been miscalibrated for months (off by just over an inch, AARRGGHHH!).

Judging from this time and the time I lost playing with the brake, I'll be in really good shape for this coming weekend at my favorite race in Erie on the Penninsula, and in better shape for the next 40k in Kokomo on July 25. I should break an hour.

For Monrovia in the overall competition I'm sitting 3rd among cat 4's, provided I break that hour mark I should move into second.

BTW, the noise was due to my saddle not being tight enough, nor in the correct position.

This was a nicer time trial then the other Monrovia TT I did. Although, my shoulder still gave me problems the race conditions were great.