Charity Black Dog TT Recap

Battled the wind for a second day this weekend at the Charity TT on the standard Black Dog course. It started raining as soon as we arrived, but promptly quit. We waited a bit to register, but Painman arrived, and it wasn't raining, so we figured we'd get it over with.

Given the strong crosswind, I decided not to ride my rear disc for the first time ever in a TT. I kept the front tri-spoke, but went with a standard spoked wheel in back. I put standard wheels on Jordan's bike too, for obvious reasons. I loaned painman my front Zipp.

Painman and I did a warm-up lap to assess the course and wind. I was getting blown around a little, while Painman was getting tossed around quite a bit more. Hey, he weighs 50lbs less than I do.

Got back to the start with about 10min to spare. Perfect. Got Jordan ready to go, and reported to the start. I knew based on Wednesday that Pete Morey was going to be the one to beat today in the M35+. Pete started 1:30 in front of me, with Jordan :30 in front of me. My start was solid. I put on a 13-25 in the back with matched up well with my 56T in front. Starting in a 56-23 is much easier than a 56-19.

I caught Jordan as we approached the power plant, and he had already overtaken his :30 man (another younger junior). I noticed right away that my HR was a good 10-15 bpm low. Clearly fatigue from yesterday's road race. I tried to gauge my gap to Morey at the turn around, and it looked like I was holding him. My turn was pretty good, and then I fought the crosswind back. The gusts forced you to keep your upper body tense. I was able to keep a fairly straight line, but it was definitely a struggle.

As I pass through the start area, I came up on a Ford Explorer caught behind a racer in front of me. I gave a quick yell, and zipped around them. I think it actually helped me speed up if anything. The headwind finish was as tough as I can remember. I was only able to get my max HR up to 176 compared to 181 on Wednesday, ave HR was 159 compared to 170.

My time was 15:37. I figured that was pretty good, since it was pretty close to Wed's time. When the results were posted, the harsh reality of a 2 second beat by Pete Morey set in. He rode a 15:35. Nice job Pete. PMax rode a high 15 for 3rd and B2B was a low 16, for 4th. Nice rides boys, especially considering the hard racing yesterday.

Jordan rode an impressive 21:17, which was 4-5 minutes faster than the other younger juniors. I'm proud of you for pushing it that hard buddy.

Ian Stanford showed us all how to ride, posting a ridiculously fast 14:40. Casper was next fastest in 15:13. Greg Brandt 15:36, Doig 15:36, and Dan Swanson 15:40.