Cycling race (Defí ITT) 29:58 [4] 22.0 km (1:22 / km)
ahr:177 max:185 rhr:52 slept:9.5 weight:130lbs
Defí Sportif ITT
The lead up to this race was the worst I have ever had. Lots of stress, little sleep, missed workouts, and shitty food. The coles notes is our battery died and I had to figure out how to get one FAST. Then the new cranks (that are the right length for Robbi) didn’t fit the bike and after 4 hrs of trying stuff finding spacers, stealing longer limit screws for the front derailleur a test ride proved it would not shift to the bike ring under load. So swapped them back and learned the old ones were also not the right size. Thank goodness for the amazingly patient Sean Kelly (new Alberta coach) who was willing to help me out in his home for what worked out to 6hrs. Despite the stress I had my AhHa moment on Wednesday and switched my brain over into beast mode.
Fast forward to packing a working bike. Flight delays, sketchy AF hotel and last minute accommodation change (thank you universe for making Celia late to leave town so I could hug her and get keys to her apartment). Our pre ride was cold and wet but we were positive and feeling good. Audrey lent us her TT helmet from Rio and I felt that was a great omen.
Warm up today was on the road and we were feeling in sync. Last nights math told me to hit our A standard of 43.8km per hour we needed to me 30.1 minutes for the 22km giving us 6 minute laps. We talked about that and decided that was our target 5x6min efforts, back to back.
Reminder words going in were relax and breathe. Robbi’s were strong circles.
The elastic for the cadence sensor broke in the line Robbi said, “forget it” and I threw it to Nat and got a supportive, “don’t stress refocus”. We started in a small gear, spun up to speed pretty fast and kept it up.
The first chicane was narrowed due to construction which meant coasting and a bit of breaks. Slight fear change for the hill and tucked down into the head wind reminding myself to relax my upper body and kept the pressure of that helmet tail on my back. Head down eyes up. It’s hard AF to see in a TT.
Hit the first lap finish right on 6min mark but it’s a slightly short lap which meant we had a bit of work to do round 2. Then I blew the u-turn a bit, all the practice made me turn tighter at speed and have a bit of a bad line. No problem, we scrubbed no speed and picked it up with our tailwind straight away. 47kms/hr
Lap 2 Same deal. Less breaks in the chicane. Hit the lap at 12min and hear Nat yell perfect pacing.
Lap 3 got cute. In the hill there was a little kid just on our side of the pylon and RIGHT IN MY LINE exiting the corner that starts the hill, I lean more and clip my pedal but we don’t hit the kid or miss a beat, we exit wide and loose a bit of speed. Tuck in down the hill, I get extra small and get our speed back. Hit the finish 18min.
Lap 4 I yell at people who are IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE COURSE OUT OF A CORNER. We go between them on a bit of a bad line into the hill and have to take an extra gear off, I apologize and hear Robbi say, “relax, refocus” and I do. We tuck in and hit that lap finish 24min
One to go. 51km/hr on the straight away, no break in the chicane slight coasting. I yell at someone else in the middle of the road. We crush it up the hill tuck low and drill it. The next little hill feels more like a hill this time. And somehow there are just piles of people everywhere. We have 1km to got and 1:45 to do it in (usually we were about 90sec for our pace target). We blow through the finish line full gas. I have 29:57 on my Garmin.
We don’t celebrate yet. Wait for the results. Maybe they measured the course different. Maybe we mathed wrong. But we think we have it.
I’m covered in snot.
After what feels like eons the tiniest print out of results comes.
Robbi Weldon and Erin Ruttan. First overall in factored TT. 44.01km/hr
Fuck yes.
May the fourth be with you.
Ps. We saw a fox.