2007 race number one

Sunday, 25 February

Time trial. Tandem. Drive time to crochet. Does bike racing get any better?

My 2007 season started today with the Frostbite TT on the oh-so-familiar River Road between Lowell and Snohomish. As expected, the wind was out of the SE, so headwind out, tailwind back. And, as remembered, this is a smooth, smooth road, which meant tons of spray on my backside and feet because TT bikes have no fenders. But, as noted, no dirt...or, at least, no unpaved sections.

It was a pretty uneventful race. No major snafus. It still feels odd to leave a race without results, but there were "sorting issues" (and we all thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier). So not only do I not know how I placed, I don't even know how many women I was competing against. The good thing about that is I don't yet have any evidence that it's time to retire. That'll come soon enough, I'm sure.

On my single bike, I kept trying to tell myself that I'd worked harder trying to hang on the back of a group on fierce training rides on this road. That worked for the first part, which I figured was going to be the hardest because it was most directly into the wind. The one tiny short drag wasn't as bad as expected; I don't think I shifted at all until the turnaround. And after I turned--wow!!--I shifted up about 3 gears and rode all the way back in my 55x13. I was so proud of myself for (1) remembering to bring my watch and (2) remembering to start it with my one-minute guy. Next week I'll have to try (3) remembering to stop it as I cross the line so I know my time.

We got a really good (hard) start on the tandem, but I missed the sound of the disk wheel. O.A.D. turned us around just fine on the narrow-ish road, and then we were able to chase down his teammate, Paul. My position as stoker is head down and elbows tucked in out of the wind; I let myself look up when I thought we were at about 1K to go--and we were about 100m from the finish! Somehow, we didn't get any of that great tailwind boost on our return, so our speed didn't go up and we rode in the same gear both directions.

Kudos to Rob and everyone at PSB Racing for starting another fine TT tradition on a course we all love to ride hard on. 120 riders at a brand new race is an accomplishment. And thanks to the WSBA officials for standing out there in the bitter cold and wet.