Things went well...but not as planned. I was to be on the line at
9:30 on the nose and the guy that was supposed to start ahead of me
didn't show(we were sent off in 30second intervals). It caused some
confusion and when I was up the timer beeped...nobody was holding
me(you're supposed to be on the line 15-30 seconds before hand with
someone holding you up in place)...I wasn't clipped in...then when I
started pedaling I realized I was on the wrong side of my pedal so
again I still wasn't clipped in with my right foot. So I'm thinking
I lost at least 5 seconds and as much as 10 seconds since I really
didn't hammer it off the start the way I planned(I had to get a lot of
speed because a big hill was coming).

Now to the course. The roads were nice and smooth...very low
traffic. However the course description was way off. I've never
done a TT so hilly...or seen one so hilly for that matter. On the
way out(it was 20km out and 20km in) the winds were terrible and it
took me a while to get my rhythm(I'm sure it did for everyone not from
the area). I'm thinking I pushed way too hard in the middle of the
first half of the race(it was obvious since I caught 3 people before
the 10k marker(that means I was 120 seconds ahead of them...not 90
since there was a missing guy infront of me). By the turnaround I was
toast but I passed another 2-3 people before hand. That was pretty
much all the Cat 4 racers that started before me. I was really
lagging at the turnaround but I was still passing people. I was
passing people in mass which felt good. I was going 5-10mph faster
than some people when I passed them...I'm sure it was very
discouraging for them:) Anyhow the course was far from flat...even
with a great tailwind for the way back I had to climb a hill and I
dropped to 13mph...thats insanely slow considering how much of a
tailwind I had. Once I crested the hill...at least there was a nice
downhill. I actually hit 42mph...thats a sign the race isn't close
to as flat as claimed. I had a strong finish but wish I laid off a
bit before I got to the halfway point. I really think I lost some
time and spent too much time recovering at the start of the second
half of the race. Anyhow...now for the results...I came in at
57:18(my goal was to break 56 but that wasn't happening with all the
hills and wind). I didn't think my time was all that fast until I
actually saw what the other times were. I missed first by 3 seconds
which was lost from my start and then some. Anyhow even with that
result I bagged $60...I should have gotten $100 but what can you
do???
Anyhow looking at the other times really makes me feel good about my
fitness, and makes me realize how terrible I am at crits considering
my TT time. One of my customers is a 54:30TT rider(and a Cat 2)...I
beat him by 1:30 and I beat a couple other sub 55TT racers which makes
me think he didn't just have a bad day(on his $10,000 Pinarello
Montello). My time also would have put me in 8th in the Pro/1/2
category(a few of them didn't even break an hour). Observing
everyones results makes me believe the sub hour guys lost at least 3
minutes to the wind and hills relative to a flat TT. This means I'm
ahead of the game and can lower my goal from breaking 55 minutes this
year. I'm going for broke and trying to break the 54 mark and I'll
call it a stretch but maybe I can hit 53:30. I've barely done any
power training and I'm thinking this is a reasonable goal considering
where I am now.