Race Report: Ontario Provincial Time Trial

Set up and ready to warm up.
(The smile masks the nerves.)

Joy here...The alarm went off at 5am today, and while it was still dark outside, I got up and started making my oatmeal so that I could be good and fuelled up for my Time Trial effort in the provincial time trial race starting first thing in the morning and carrying on into the afternoon, with the final rider starting down the racing chute at 1:30pm.

I drank my coffee and stirred my oats, spooning crushed banana and blueberries in for both energy and flavour.  With each swallow I tried to get the nervousness out of my throat, but I could feel it rising, settling in my gullet.

I methodically loaded up the car with my bike on top and all my gear as if this Sunday's Time Trial was no different from the other time trials I have done throughout this summer (like the three 10km ones I did back on May 15, May 22, and May 29 and the four 15km ones on June 5, June 12, July 3, and July 10). I tried to convince myself that today is no different than any other day, and I had nothing to be nervous about.

I still tried to convince myself as I drove us (me and The Man, my one-man cheering squad) out through country roads heading east east east towards the site of the race.  I was still trying to convince myself as I turned into the parking lot at the registration centre.  Then I got out of the car and looked around me, and I realized that it was futile to try to cover up my nervousness, because all those gathered just made me so much more nervous than I already was.  Getting over that nervousness was a battle I lost as soon as I parked my car.

Just focus on the warm up, focus, focus, focus...

There were girls in skin suits so that the seams in their clothes wouldn't slow them down.  There were deep dish wheels (i.e. no spokes) to make people more aerodynamic all around me.  Everywhere I turned I saw people with cool aero helmets making them look like intimidating cylons.  5 out of the 12 women in my category were on the same team!  They looked like some kind of super athletic clique.  I suddenly felt very very out of my league.

I mean, I only did my first bike ride with my new aero bars yesterday, and I still don't really know how to stand or turn on my bike with any great efficiency.  So there I was, hopping on my bike on the trainer to warm up under the hot morning sun feeling like some kind of fraud.  What was I doing here?

Please don't fall off, please don't fall off, please don't
fall off!

I tried to push those thoughts and questions away and just focus on my warm up, sweating all over my bike and my trainer, blocking out the uber fit folks all around me that look like they know what they're doing, and by the time I rolled over to the starting gate, I had almost convinced myself that I belonged amongst the racers, that I was where I should be.

Then I looked up at the starting gate, and realized that we would be starting off a ramp, real Tour de France style, yet another thing that I had never done before.

Okay...I swallowed and told myself, this is a ride of firsts:  first time trial with my aero bars, first time trial of a 20km distance, and first time trial with a starting ramp.  Nervous?  Yes.

But then the ride started, and my nerves had to be put aside.  I was out under a bright blue sky tearing into a terrible head wind.  Within the first 3 minutes, I was averaging 228watts into that headwind, trying to focus on a smooth and consistent cadence, to keep pedalling and keep the girl one minute ahead of me in my sights.

Just not 12th out of 12, not 12th out of 12 became my mantra as I pedalled.  So long as I wasn't last place, I told myself, I would be happy.  I was the second woman down that starting ramp, and I had no idea how fast they were going behind me, so I just kept the woman ahead of me in my sights, and tried ever so slowly to reel her in.

...not 12th out of 12, not 12th out of 12...

Tearing towards the finish line!

By the halfway point, I was down to averaging around 186watts, but by that point, the wind was a cross wind, tearing over empty fields and threatening to blow me sideways off my bike.  And, then, with about 8 kms left to go, there was a bit of a hill on the otherwise flat course, and I could really see the woman in front of me struggling, so I powered up that hill and past her like she was standing still.  I shouted encouragement to her, but all I could think was:  yes!  I'm at least 11th out of 12!  Knowing that I wasn't in last place, and turning into the final 5kms of the race also gave me a bit of a tail wind, so that even though my power had dropped down to 158watts, I was riding at 35km/hr (thank you tail wind!).

And even though I almost took a wrong turn about 500m from the finish line and lost some time there, I turned those pedals as fast as I could.  I may not have a fancy bike with disk wheels, or an aero helmet, a skin suit or booties to make me fly aerodynamically, but if you put me in a race, you'll get my competitive juices flowing, and there's a good chance that I'll rise to the occasion, nervousness be damned!

All done!

As I finished, the other women finished behind me, and we congratulated each other, and compared notes about the race.  One of the women behind me said that she passed the woman one minute ahead of her, and while I patted her on the back, I thought to myself yes!  I must be at least 10th out of 12!

So as I made my way over to The Man who cheered me on, I felt good about not coming in last place, and we went over to the registration centre to await the final results.  I knew that I wasn't as fast as I had been in those shorter time trials earlier on in the summer, but I had no idea how fast everyone else was.

It turns out some of them were quite fast.

But not so many of them as I might have thought.

In the end, only 5 of them beat my time, and I was only 2 minutes slower than the winner!  I came in 6th place in my first provincial-level time trial race!  Seeing as how I came in 6th in my first ever bunch bike race this July, maybe 6 is my lucky number.  I'll take lucky 6 over nervous 12 any day of the week.

Now maybe I'm going to go and have 6 beers to celebrate my 6th place!

Over and out,
Joy

Race Stats:
Distance:  20km
Time:  35:16
Avg Speed:  33.4km/r
Avg Power:  191watts
Avg Heart Rate:  166bpm
Avg Cadence:  90