Video Gear Review: Time Trial Helmets

2007: Deschutes Time Trial Festival

Stage 1: 26 Miles (2,200 ft of climbing)

Rider Health: Serious Head Cold

The first stage was a rolling course with about 2,200 ft of elevation change. All things considered I felt ok for the first few miles of the TT and road through much of the Cat 4 field. But on reaching the summit of the climb 3.5 miles into the race, my head cold was catching up with me and my legs felt dead. The mucus began to flow. A little over half way into the course I was passed by my 30 second man. I ended up finishing 2nd, 45 seconds down on first.

Stage 2: 8 mile hill climb.

Felt absolutely terrible after the first stage and thought about abandoning all together then and their. But, knew that wasn't really an option, so road back to the hotel and passed out. With an hour to go till the hill climb, got up and downed some Orange Juice. And set out to do my warm-up. The 8-mile hill climb was buffeted by a serious side wind, and between the wind, and my ever flowing mucus, the 8 miles felt eternal. In the end I lost another 45 seconds on first with another 2nd place.

Stage 3: ~50 mile out and back fun fest.

Thankfully while my cold had sapped my high end some how I still had some level of tempo left burning inside. At the turn around I had put close to 5 min into the rider who was riding in first for the 4's, and on crossing the line (2:01:47) I had the the cat 4 GC.

More Race Results

Back From the FC:508!

returned back to the Northwest on Monday from the FC:508. I'm going to be posting a huge post race write-up pictures and all. But until then, here's the inside scoop..

Road super strong averaging over 18 mph, till a little post baker, 400 miles. Just as the sun started to creep up over the horizon, riding in 4th place my stomach turned big time. I then found myself on the side of the road with nearly everything I'd eaten the last few hours pouring out of my mouth. I slept for ~25 min, vomited again. At this point the crew asked if I wanted to go on, on the surface I didn't, I said out loud, "I don't think I can make it." Then, I had my vision. No, it wasn't spiritual, we all have heroes/mentors, and one of mine is the RAO Race Promoter George Thomas. In my mind, George appeared like a vision from star wars standing in the middle of the desert. In my vision, George told me "I was on day four of RAAM, everyone puked, and that if I quite I would forever be branded a PUSSY, the one thing ultra cyclists don't do is DNF. DNFing is a curse, do it once and you will do it again and again." With that I knew there was once choice, I consulted the crew, but the decision had already been made. I needed to be in 29 palms on my bike!

Pedaling On!
At this point my goals changed, I was no longer mentally racing, I was just going to get my body to the finish line doing what ever I had too. Over the last 108 miles I barely ate anything consuming just a few shots of raspberry hammer gel as stomach couldn't handle anything else. Riding on a total bonk, I slipped to 7th place, finishing with a time of approximately 32hrs 30 min. My goal had been a top 3 and a sub 30 hr time, but crossing the line none of that mattered.. I was a official FC:508 finisher, FC rookie no more.

Yes, with out the stomach issues the race would have ended very differently. But in the end, it all comes back to why I ride ultra's in the first place. I choose to ride ultra's not because they are easy but because they are hard. Finishing under severer difficulty only makes crossing the line in the end all the sweeter.

It's Tartan Time!

Oregon State Time Trial Championships, - RESULTS!

The Oregon State Time Trial Championships went down today and more importantly both Kenneth and his MOM were there in their respective catagories for a Total Tartan Smack Down! Yes, thats right, Kenneth Got his TT groove on and drove the Lethal Wepon, Co-Motion, in for another nice finish, powering in with a sub hour 41km time, and grabbing a first place finish. There was a slight 30 second timming difference between what team philbrick time the TT at and what the offical recordered but regardless of which pipe you smoke Kenneth pounded down a sub hour 41KM TT.

Not to be missed from the medals, Cathey Philbrick, in her first 20 KM trial, no make that first bike race ever! Kicked the gears big time and drove in a steller finish taking a very strong third place, bring home a BRONZE, which I might add looks very much like gold..

Resuts:
Kenneth Philbrick 1st Place Cat IV Men 40KM
offical 59 min 6 sec, our unoffical timing 58 min 36 sec

Cathey Philbrick, 3rd Place Masters Women (55-59) 20 KM
offical: 39 min 4 sec

It's Tartan Time!

Oregon State Time Trial Championships

Sunday August 6 is the date set for the Oregon State Time Trial Championships. What those in the know don't know is not just one but two PHILBRICKS will be racing in the State Time Trial Championships. Yeah, of course I will be there. But who's the second mystery Philbrick? Well, she is my Mom, Cathey Philbrick. She is slated for the masters women 55-59 race. And with Mitocondira being entirely inherited through the maternal line I think she should do just fine, actually I sorta feel sorry for all the guys she's going to be passing. So when your racing the state TT champs and this masters lady on a silver lemond passes and steals just a little of your cycling karma know that rider was "MY MOM!". I guess this all begs the question, what’s your MOM GOT?

August 6th is Tartan Time!

Oregon State Team Time Trial Championships

Sun, a light wind, one couldn't ask for a better weather for the Team Time Trial Championships. A few weeks ago, I got an email from a friend riding for Team E-Web asking if I fancied a place in their echelon for the State Team Time Trial Champs. I said sure and the Men’s Cat-3 E-Web TTT team was born.

Now when you hear about teams who excel at the Team Time Trial format, there is a common trend, practice, and time. In our case, practice amounted to arriving early enough at the race so we could do a few clicks on the road. Yeah, we were tight.

So, the race format, four, seven mile laps around the plains of Corvallis, with two minute gaps between teams.

Our Team: Team E-Web, Jim (2006 RAO Solo Competitor), Ben, Doug, and big o'le me.

- The Start -

Rolling up to the start it was evident that the cycling gods must have favored us as we had an ideal starting position, last in our category. Team Guinness was getting their final count down. The Guinness guys looked good and with their launch, we had two minutes to chill. With the time trial consisting of laps the start had the added complexity of actively racing teams zipping through the start at the same time as other teams were being staged. With about 15 seconds to go a team shot through and then it was our turn to start the music.

The big trick on TT's is not to spend your load too early; ideally the fumes should only start to show up as one approaches the final line. Our start was tight, Doug, led the group out, Fish fell in, I was next, and then Ben. With Ben on the TT commenced and everything was jolly. Then approximately 5 minutes into the first lap, we had just passed a team of a different category, Fish was pulling, and as he drifted to the outside of the road and was suddenly off the road, throwing gravel everywhere! How Fish kept the bike upright is nothing short of a miracle. We eased up for a moment and then continued on thinking Fish was gone. Glancing back, someone said, "He’s back on the road!” with that we all slammed on our brakes, and awaited the arrival. With the team whole again it was time to really start the show. The now frustrated Fish, went to the front and showed the rest of us how it was done.

Team TT's are hard. In some ways I think they are much harder then individual TT's. In the ITT one just raises their pace to the maximum they can maintain for the distance and then just holds it. It hurts, but everything is constant, the tempo is steady. In Team TT's everything is different, when the rider is in the front they put out an effort far above that of their ITT pace then after a few seconds they rotate off reduce the intensity and slide to the back before jumping back on for another rotation. The big trick is jumping back on, sliding off is easy but jumping back on is hard as it involves a quick acceleration. If one misses the draft window it’s harder still.

Going into the third lap we were down to three riders. The rules for the TTT state that the third rider over the line is time so now for an official finish we would need everyone to bring it in.

Part of the reason, I do well in ITT's is I'm more of tempo rider. I like it when the tempo is constant changes in efforts are difficult and as such the laps were beginning to take their toll on me. I'd go to the front, drop my wad, Fish would attack, and I'd have to dig real deep to jump back on.

Some time about now, a Cat-1/2 team caught and passed us. But instead of opening a huge gap they just motored up the road a bit and then stopped pulling away. Being passed hurts, so we fought back and returned the favor. Then they passed us again but again after a bit we were again in the lead. I think this scenario was occurring because our team was holding a slightly more consistent pace then the 1/2 team.

A little time passed and then we caught the Ginuess Guys with one lap to go. Going into the final lap I pushed hard, and applied some force with my gastrocnemius (calf muscle) and felt the ever so slight tingling of an upcoming cramp. I swift gulp of cytomax, and a slightly altered pedaling style to avoid forceful contractions of the gastrocnemius and we were into the final lap. The whole final lap is a total blur.

Final Results: Team - E-WEB snagged first and first by a healthy margin (> 2 min), we ended up covering approximately 28 miles in a just a little over the illusive hour mark. Figure Fish's early off road race adventures, cost 30 seconds - 1 min, we figure we could have been under an hour if that whole escapade hadn't happened.

Now for note to all those entering the solo category at RAO this year. Fear the Fish. Trust me Fish is seriously strong, it was all I could do to hold is wheel today during the later half of today’s adventure. I don't think the Fish is RAAM qualified so it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see the great RAO tradition continue of requiring phenomenal race times to make the RAAM cut.

Link to OBRA: Results

As always, "It's Tartan Time!"

Eugene Time Trial Series

So this posting is a tad out of order but long over do so here we go. For those in the know, last month was the Eugene Time Trial Series. The series format, four 15 mile TT every tuesday for a month, same time same place. The race course, a Swedish pancake flat loop featuring 2 turns just a few miles north of Eugene..

The Results:

- Week One

So I’m always nervous going into TT’s. Was Jack Frost a fluke? How should I pace myself for this course? How much should I be warming up? And why oh why did I forget my cytomax. The competition looked good, lots of big legs, disk wheels, and aero helmets. Rolling up to the line I had butter flies in my stomach, 3, 2,1, go! And I was off, I tapped the pedals, the Co-Motion responded like it was an extension of my leg and I was doing 29 mph. With the course being a tad more then 10 feet in length I thought it wise to dial it back a bit, so I settled down to a cruising pace and started to pull back my carrots. Going out there was a head wind but as long as it held it might make the trip back fun. Not being totally familiar with the course, the first corner felt a little long, the second came a little quicker, and then I was sailing with the wind doing well over 28 mph. Crossing the finish line this weeks results, 15 miles in 34 min 47 seconds, which turned out to be good enough for first in both the 4’s and the 3’s, placing me 4^th overall, not to shabby for week 1.

- Week Two

After the previous week’s results I was feeling a tad more comfortable with results. The plan this week, just do everything the same but better and let the bike take care of everything else. The catch, there always is a catch, the weather didn’t look good. The wind was shifting, and those dark clouds in the sky looked ominous. Back to the starting gate, and off the line, it felt good to know the course. The carrots this week were faster so I didn’t wasn’t catching quite as many, then it happened, those dark clouds in the sky just could hold back and on the way back the wind lashed out strike me in the face and the clouds poured down like a water fall. Coming in everything inside of me kept wanting to raise the white flag, I kept having to remind myself that I was TTing, that I needed to push it, the line came, and crossing it I knew my performance this week had been nowhere near as good as the previous.

Time: 35:32.00, 1st in the Cat 4’s, 6th overall, and almost a minute down from the previous weeks time.

- Week Three

Going into week three I felt kind of low, yeah the previous weeks weather was bad, but a nearly a minute down Kenneth? Were my first two times flukes of luck? This week I changed my warm up slightly, adjusting when I ate, what I ate, and I made a vow to control my pace off the line. The weather was better this week, no rain, but there was still a wind. Of the line, out, back, and across, I started early, and pulled in nearly all my carrots. Crossing the line I felt good almost too good, could I have gone harder, yeah maybe, thankfully there was still one more week to go..

Time: 34:21.00, 1st in the Cat 4’s, 6th overall.

- Week Four – Final week

With my victory in the cat 4’s nearly assured and just 3 days separating the final TT from the start of the Deschutes TT Fest, the plan for this race was to try out all the changes and modifications I was thinking about making for this weekends adventure. After attaching the new equipment, and going though a slightly more refined prep, I was back on the line and off. Off the line for the final time, I almost felt sad the series was going to be drawing to a close. But with the best weather of any of the weeks now was going to be the time to show my stuff, and the race seemed to progress well as the carrots popped back one by one. Crossing the line I felt good, but had it been enough?

Time: 34:12.00 (Fastest time of all three weeks), 1st in the Cat 4’s, 5th overall, and the Cat 4 series GC.

Deschutes TT Festival - Stage 1 Photos

Photo Credit: Paul Lieto

First Annual - Deschutes TT Festival (stage race)

Ever been to TT Stage Race? Up until this weekend I had no idea how much fun/adventure could be crammed into just two days. The Deschutes TT Festival, consisted off three stages all based out of Maupin, OR, a sleepy fishing, rafting, and now cycling town in north eastern Oregon. The stages started off early on Saturday with a punishing 40 KM, followed up by 8 mile hill climb later that afternoon and finally concluded with a 50 mile out and back Sunday.

- Stage 1 -

Going into the first 40 KM event I felt good. I was nervous about the first few miles as the TT started with a significant 2 mile climb, but after that I couldn’t have asked for a better course. With my minute man off, promoter, RAAM Veteran, and all around cool guy, George Thomas, held the bike. I snapped in. Put some pressure into the pedals, and was off. Now, I’m not a climber, but that morning I felt like this 180 lb beef cake could have shelled the lightest Columbian. By the top of the climb, I’d pulled back my 30, 90, and 120 second carrots, and was closing in on my 60 second carrot. At the top of the climb with a good 22 miles still left, I settled down, and began to cruise, and chased my 60 second man, Carl, into the descent. Carl descended just a tad more aggressively and by the base of the climb had increased our gap a little. I eased forward, found the nose of the saddle, began to put some power into the pedals, and then the saddle rocked forward! I moved back and it rocked back. The weld holding the top of frame on had broken, and the sleeve holding the seat post was just floating free! With the saddle just hanging there, I didn’t think I should sit on it, and I was worried if I just left it dangling there it might fall into my rear wheel and catastrophically end it all. So with that I slammed on the breaks depositing the saddle, seat post, severed frame sleeve on the side of the road, and resumed the chase with 23 KM left. Without the saddle, the aero bars weren’t an option makeing the shifters inaccessible. The bike had now been reduced to a high power low cadence single speed. A few miles later I hit my first decent and found that while I couldn’t pedal due to the loss of pedal tension, I could now tuck real low. The final decent of the course was less kind, it consisted of a few corners which were quite a challange sans saddle. In the final KM my hands and wrists began to hurt. Bringing it in I was passed by a few 1-2’s and two of my carrots. Crossing the line I’d salvaged 3^rd place, 3 min down on the leaders. Carl, my 60 second man, took second only being denied 1^st by 3 seconds. As bad as my luck had been it could have been worse, my good friend, Ben, had suffered a flat ending his chase for GC.

- Stage 2 –

Stage 1 had started at roughly 9:00 and with stage 2, an 8 mile hill climb set for 3:00 the plan had been to eat a nice lunch, take a nap, before warming up. The events of stage 1 changed all that. The whole rest and relaxation period was pulled from the schedule and replaced by a crazy fast attempt to salvage the TT fest by setting my road bike as some sort of bastardized TT weapon. Cranks were swapped, cassettes and wheels were changed, saddle height adjusted, etc. With a little over an hour left before the start of the second stage everything was as good as it was going to get and it was time to get ready. The hill climb started out steep, and then after a few corners turned into a power climb with a serious side wind. Hill climbs definitely aren’t my thing, but given everything else that had happened that day I felt thankfull to hold 3^rd place. A climber catapulted himself into second position, putting over a minute on the rest of the field, and first place ever so slightly increased his gap. Carl, who had been sitting in 2^nd position, suffered the serious misfortune of suffering the next bout of equipment failure loosing a crank arm not long after he had left the line, ending his chase for GC.

- Stage 3 -

Sunday Morning, I was sitting in third place, with a little over three minute’s separating myself from GC. With Carl and Ben both out of the chase for GC, both offered up TT equipment to try and give me some sort of aero setup to do the final TT on. I took Ben up on the offer and rolled up to the start with some borrowed clip on aero-bars. The final stage was a 50 mile out and back on the notoriously difficult bake oven road. The first 2 miles of bake oven are fairly gnarly but after that the climb settles down into a power climb. I was being chased by the Cat 4 climbing phenom. Right before reaching the summit of the initial two mile section I had the honor of seeing him fly by. Once the climb had settled down into something more reasonable, I returned the favor and went on to put a little less then 4 min into him, and 9 min into first, grabbing a stage win and cat 4 stage race GC!

I'm Back!

It’s been awhile, first it was finals, then spring break craziness, then classes kicked up again, OSU racing, etc. In reality I should really be doing something else right now, so don't tell any one.

No sooner had winter quarter ended then it was time to kick off the Colligate cycling season and with the first being our very own OSU omnium. The format for the OSU weekend was simple. A 70 mile Road Race around and around the Decker loop, then a 12 mile TTT, and then the next day a crit down in Eugene put on by those crazy quacks.

Race summary - RR: The road race started out smooth, but no sooner had the race started then my shifting started acting up. Then on the 3rd of 5 laps, the captain of our squad had his rear tubular blow out on grange road. Two of us fell off to help pace Dan back into the field. But after a agonizingly slow wheel change it just wasn't going to happen, to compound matters my chain went from skipping to sizing, and I ended up falling off and finishing a few minutes behind everyone else. After a quick lunch it was on to the TTT.

TTT: The Team time trial was a short out 12 mile out and back over some of the same hill's we had been chilling on during the RR. The men's A OSU TTT was a total mess. We started off a tad slow on the climbs and never quite reached a cruising speed on the way out. Then on the way back we spit off a rider, and then were passed by the team whom would go on to finish first. Out of 7 teams we ended up coming in 5th.

Crit: The crit was a short loop down in Eugene. It started off fast and fierce. What crit doesn’t? Then say 10 minutes into the fun a lead group shot away. The real bummer here was the breakaway contained no representatives from OSU! So the remainder of the crit was spent by the rest of us chasing the break.

- Week 2 - With spring break drawing to a close it was time for the Portland State Omnium. Like the previous week the format for this week ends adventures was RR, TTT, and Crit. The road race course was 5 laps around Hag Lake, then the TTT was the road race course in reverse, and the crit the following day was out around a loop at Mt Hood community college.

More to come..

Photo Blog: Jack Frost TT

(click on the photo to enlarge)

Photo courtesy of Alex Johnson
Pacific Sports Photography

First TT of the Season: The Jack Frost 20KM

The Plan
Going into my races I like to have a plan. The Jack Frost plan was simple, to not take the TT to seriously. While it’s nice to win races there just wasn't time in the training schedule to do anything special for the Jack Frost TT. So Friday was a 3 hr training ride, then Saturday UO/OSU team ride was as long as it was intense, and then Sunday was going to be the first TT of the season, tapering is for wimps. In some ways I figured all the pre-TT riding, and total lack of any thought of a taper was good it would better reflect the nth day of a stage race or nth pull of a team ultra.

The Prep
My training Saturday, day before the TT, was to do the OSU/UO team ride. The team ride was super fun, but also super intense. I made a extra effort to eat all day long to attempt to keep the glycogen topped off. Then before driving to my parents place in the evening for dinner I had a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, then dinner a few hours later and final TT prep. I was really worried I'd spent too much time anaerobic so after dinner I spent much of the remaining evening lying on the rug with the Compex buzzing away on the legs.

Race Day
Normally I don't like to eat much before a TT. The general plan is to eat a full dinner the night before then eat a minimal breakfast consisting of mostly liquids the morning of the TT. Well, this plan works great until your dad wakes up before you do and makes a special breakfast especially for you. Can't exactly say no that can you. So with thoughts in my head that, well, I'm not exactly going for a win, I ate two poached egg's, one English Muffin, a yogurt, and drank a glass of OJ before hitting the road to drive north with four hours to go. Driving north I stopped off part way for a coffee too.

Arriving at the Race
The Jack Frost race course was just over the boarder in Vancouver, WA. Pulling into the staging grounds I was blown away. There were so, so, many people. I like to park as close to the start as it makes it relatively easy to make last minute adjustments, driving in the closest spot I could find was way, way back in the back of the lot buy the guy with the banjo. Still no worries, today’s plan is to just get the feet wet TTing on the new bike. Once out, it was time to get ready. On went the sport kilt, pants off, warming gel on, shorts on, Heart Rate Monitor, TT Top, Rudy Project Aero helmet, socks, knee warmers, shoes, shoe covers, helmet, glasses, a friendly competitor to pin my number on, bike off the top, and on the road ready to go..

Riding out I stopped by the starting gate to double check my start time,1hr 30 minutes till party time. Out on the road behind the starting gate, I did a few quick starting/cruising efforts. Everything felt good, the tire pressure seemed right. Then it was back in to find a friendly trainer to sit on. Riding back in, I kept running into people I knew, Jay, Dave, Fish, etc.. It was quite cool and I ended up doing my final warm-up on a friend’s trainer right next to the official "Head Hunters" van, talking RAO shop. The time flew by and soon I had to go. With 10 minutes left I rolled up to the starting line for some stretching.

Into the Starting Gate
With my first carrot out, I rolled into the starting gate, one of the starters held my bike. I clipped in. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! For the first 100 feet, I was out of the aero bars, and just hammered and then slid down into the aero bars and just started to initiate cruising speed.

Party Time
My starting game plan was simple. Heart rate lags power, especially at the start so without a power meter the best way to gauge efforts is with estimated speedometer speeds. Well that’s all good if your bike computers functioning, but mine had decided to quit on me some where between my warm up and the starting gate. Maybe the receiver had moved. Either way, now was definitely not the time to try and fix it. With out the computer I was left to rely solely on my polar heart rate monitor for any feedback. My heart rate settled into ~177 BMP, a little on the low end. The first corner came went, and I was soon catching my first carrot. Then the next, and the next, eventually I lost count of how many I passed.

The Results
The finish sorta snuck up on me. Crossing the finish line I felt good, I didn't know how fast, I'd gone, but I felt like I'd ridden it well, and the new Co-Motion TT bike had been nothing short of phenomenal. No bottom bracket flex period. Rolling back to the car, I stopped to talk with the Sharks from RAO and then it was time to return home..

Well, I must admit I was anxious to see the results from the TT. The bike had felt great, I'd felt good, and I thought I had to be in the top 10. Well it turns out I logged a personal TT PR. Doing 20KM in 27 min 41.12sec and just snagging first place in the cat 4/5's by a little over half a second, beating all the cat 3's, and placing 16^th over all.

I have to admit, that I have to contribute much of my "new" performance to the TT bike Co-Motion built for me, it raised my average speed 2 MPH! I guess the guy who said "It's Not About the Bike", never TTed on a Co-Motion..

Keeping it Real
Ok so I did great, nuff said. But other people also logged phenomenal times to, Jeff Teder, AKA the 4 man RAO shark captain road to commanding 3rd in the 4/5's. Lito & Bill Nicolai from Head Hunter fame both posted impressive times too. Its a few years out, but can you say Father & Son RAO redux!! Anyway, in all seriousness Terri & George you might need to set up the camera for this years RAO cause I think it might be just that tight..

View the full Results

It's Tartan Time

3rd Race in the Northwest Time Trial Series.

First off I want to say that I’m still working my tail off to write up my win at RAO two weeks ago. With 538.9 miles of pure racing the write-up is taking awhile to piece together. Anyway stay tuned it should be out some time this next week.

But until then, I thought I’d fill you all in on the 30K TT I did yesterday.

June, 18th, 3rd Race in the Northwest Time Trial Series.
The secret location of this months TT, The Dalles (should be pronounced like “The Bears” from SNL). Anyway back to the TT. With a 10:20ish start, I’d driven out to the day before and was at the course well rested a few hours before the start. I keep fine tuning what exactly I’ll eat before a morning TT, I find I really can’t eat much. Today’s breakfast 3 hrs before my start, triple non-fat late, 2 bananas, 1 yogurt, and 1 Odwalla super food drink. In hind sight I would skip the yogurt next time.

The weather was great; I made some slight adjustments to the bike, pumped the zipps up to 160 psi, and set out to preview the course sucking down some Cytomax. I was going to be the last 4/5 rider to go and the promoters had given me race number “01”, was this by chance, or was this a omen of things to come. Ten min before my start I did a red bull, drenched my head with water, and went over to the line and did some stretching.

We were doing 30 second starts. On the starting line, the promoter, George, said clip in, I went to do so, and threw my chain on the line. George said, “Keep it cool, you got time”. I remounted the chain, what a crappy way to loose a few seconds, was on the bike clipped in, George held me, 5, 4, 3, 2 GO! George yelled “Haggis at the finish”! And I was off!

Off the line my heart rate didn’t quite spike up like it has in the past, I think it was the good warm up I done. I settled down and started the groove. I caught, the first two riders at the 1 km mark, then the next two a little after that, and so on. I found that I could cruse quite comfortably with my heart rate in the high 170’s, 177 etc.. But when I hit 180bmp I would go quite anaerobic and just die. It was weird, it wasn’t quite the depth of pain that I’d ridden to in past TT’s, the tachometer on my motor was just topping out at 180. Anyway, back to the race. The course rolled over a series of climbs for the first 10 miles, then climbed up a steep clicker at mile 12, before plummeting back down and to a creek bed, and rolling in to the finish a few miles later. Unlike past TT venues which follow an out and back course, this one was a loop. I caught the next rider up, and the one after that. I think I ended up catching most if not all of the 4/5 field.

Anyway, final results, I snagged the top spot in the 4/5’s by 1 min, 31 seconds, with a time of 48 min 7 seconds..

Its Tartan Time!

Results: http://www.nwtts.com/results605.htm

We Won!

Hi RAO Sports Fans! Well, this last weekend I had the race of my life at RAO, riding 538.9 miles in 35 hrs, 23 min 23 seconds and snagging first place in the solo men's field by a little over 3 hrs, with only around 25 minutes of off the bike time. In short team tartan was outstanding! There is no way, I could have done any nearly as well if it hadn't been for the fantastic support from my crew, Ben Larson (crew chief), Mom, Dad, and Uncle Larry. The crew anticipated my every need and was always right where I needed them when I needed them.

I've posted some digi-photo's my Dad shot at the race to: http://home.myuw.net/bhl/2005/RAOPhotoAlbum1/index.html

I hope to get more photo's posted too as they turn up.

Expect a fuller race write-up later this week, and until then!

ITS TARTAN TIME!