Training Log Archive: Flight

First World Cup ITT
Start gate our chain got into the little ring somehow and we were stuck jumping off the bike at a minute to go. That was stressful. We got back on and clipped in with 10seconds to go.

Breathe

Start going not too fast quick 180 right turn 100m from the start ramp, then immediately off camber 105 degree left, 30m to a right into the main road. TT bars head tucked. What’s that green thing? Oh it’s a balloon floating about the road.....go away balloon I don’t want you in my gears. Balloon floats away. Bank left, bullhorns and hard right into the first climb.
We carry a pile of speed and gear down halfway up, some little town and a right into a kicker, 50m of hill left and then it a BIG decent.

Bull horns I see the town exit sign, this is my mark to move right and coast, pull some brake and line up for the not quite 180 left. Three pedal strokes then coast into the 180 sweeping right. We are almost done the brain work. I take a breath, one more sweeping right and then a 90 degree on to wide open road. TT bars and we push hard through the few km of “flat” and “straight” road. Hit the first round about, we are routed left, I don’t know this line. There is a pot hole, I’m entering the exit turn too wide and looking for the curb. Some nice fellow points to the apex with the drop off. Bless this man. I come within an inch we exit the round about and start pedaling get in the gear quick. The second round about is better (though there is a pothole in the best line, remember the for the next lap). Last round about we are routed on the right, I know this line. Into the 3k of climb. My goal is to keep my HR a bit low so that I can think through the technical section 175. We cross the start / lap hit those tight turns loosing not much speed. No balloon on the main road, ride the TT bars around the left and get up to power up that little hill. Shift gears. What’s that sounds. I look down. Dropped chain. Big ring. Won’t go. Small ring. Won’t go. I jump off the bike and fix it. I’m struggling to clip in and get back on.

Pause. Breathe. Focus.

Clip in right side robbi is in both and we start moving. We are in a huge ring. I shift. I’m not clipped in left side. I get there.
I hear Robbi say, “it’s not over, keep going”
I do. We hit the kicker and stand. We are over.
We hit the down hill and take the turns fast but in control. Hit the flats and move through them at 52km/hr bless that man still pointing my apex for the first round about.
Into the big climb PA is at the 1k with spilts. I yell dropped chain, he says last lap we were 1:45 off first and sitting in 3rd.
Nats near the top and says, “easy through the downhill and smash it the next climb”.

Through what will be the feedzone Sunday Robbi tells me to take a drink. I do.

Last technical in town. Lines aren’t any better but they are faster.

Main road I tuck a focus on being small.
Up the little hill I gingerly shift chain stays on. Poland passes us. We use them as a carrot. We make up some time and I’m close to redline going into the down hill so I take a moment to breathe. I can see Poland the whole time and close some of the gap.
Flats I keep them in sight my favorite race helper is pointing the apex of the first round about we pedal through most of it and stay on our gear. We hit the climb for the last time. PA tells us we were 3:20 off in 4th on lap two and 3min back in maybe 3rd presently.
I let my HR redline for this climb, there is no technical section to follow just cobbles.

We hit the cobbles, they feel like washboards sucking the energy from my legs. 200m to go and it pitches. We keep pushing. I see the arch.

Done.

Unsure if we are 3 or 4 we wait for finals results.

We end up in 4th 10seconds off 3rd place and not that far off 2nd.

Curse that chain drop.

Podium is in sight for us for the RR and next weekend.

Great news, we just hit the other carding requirement of top half at a World Cup. Nothing like taking care of both of those in 6days.

C • Great report. 4

After sleeping 10.5hrs and eating some oatmeal I am starting to feel a bit normal.
Loading the car with a built tandem was cute. It doesn’t fit in super well even with the wheels off the derailleur sits almost over the stick shift and the stoker saddle rests above the drivers head. But with a bit of finesse we made it work and headed over to Corridonia to pre-ride and get our accreditation.
Pin drop taking us to the school took us up a cobble one way road and we though that surely we were in the wrong place. Eventually we popped out on a road with yellow arrows and bikes so we followed them and ended up driving a lap of the course. The drive was terrifying.

Built the bike and saw the NT crew got some pointers (which were the obvious, the course is open to traffic so take the downhill slow the first lap) and learned, your not really finding your line today.
Lap one was a bit scary but not as bad as in the car. The worse section is the start of the lap with off carver pitches. There is a blind corner in the middle of the down hill which will require some brakes and a three km climb to the lap/finish turns which was worrisome but the grade is not too bad when you ride it. we took the lap route and went around again. This time was faster and we got a bit better feel for the lines for the race but still not really moving on the down hill sections as there was way too much traffic. Spent some time in the TT position but not much. Finished the lap taking the finish route which was a right turn into a kicker of cobble road lined with brick buildings forming the “chute” that spits you out into a plaza with the UCI awards stage. What and AWESOME finish. It FEELS like a world stage finish. I wish I had a helmet cam. Robbi will video it on her phone tomorrow so you can see.

Fingers crossed they close the course early tomorrow so we can ride some of the technical sections at speed. If not, we’ll i guess it’s a good thing I’ve been practicing my cornering.
It’s a bit of a heads up TT but there is a 2km sections that’s mostly straight that Aeros will be beneficial for. Also glad I took the space to pack my other shoes and pedals that I prefer for hills because this course has no flat bits.

We thought riding near the house would be a bit flatter, but it really wasn’t at all.

We made it to London! I have officially traveled outside of North America. Only one and a half hiccups that weren’t really hiccups. Airport shuttle to the hotel meant a paid bus. And westjet doesn’t serve food on their European flights, I guess that’s how they are so inexpensive. Good thing we had packets of oatmeal and apples in our carry on.

Tomorrow’s flight is 6:25 and will take us to Ancona 40min from the race course.
Bike building and easy spin unless I’m jet lagged drunk. Then we will walk the course instead.

Oh yeah turns out we did math wrong Saturday. The standard was only 43.4 not 43.8, so, bonus.
Also set the female course record for tandem and RWs fastest time on that course having competed on it 7 of the last 8 years.

C • Course Record 4

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.

C • Most excellent 5