And that’s just the way it was supposed to be.  Today was the OBRA team time trial championships, and I volunteered to do the race with teammates a few weeks back.  It’s a 27 mile course, with teams of four racing against the clock for the best time.  To do well, it takes precision, fluid transitions between pulls, expensive aero equipment, and a lot of raw power.  It also takes a lot of trust between teammates, as you’re racing along at high speed with only inches between wheels and no ability to grab the brakes (which is actually a good thing).

We got off to a fast start averaging between 28 and 30 MPH.  I was feeling good and we were exchanging pulls – taking time at the front between 30 and 45 seconds a piece.  And then a teammate cracked and couldn’t hold the pace and quickly fell several hundred yards behind.  This was in the first of four 7 mile laps, so it was a bit of a problem.  Waiting for him would have cost too much time, so we forged ahead with only three of us.  The team’s time is based on the third teammate to cross the line, so this meant all three of us had to finish, and if someone flatted or had any other issues our time was shot.

We slowed up a bit, as holding the high pace with 3 of us would have been too difficult over the entire length of the race.  I was feeling great, so as we entered the 3rd and 4th laps, I started taking pulls over a minute long while my teammates shortened their pulls to 30 seconds or less to try to rest.  We worked together really well and had smooth transitions the entire race.  Towards the end of the race is the time that can make or break a team if you’ve gone too far, as you can blow up and go from 25+ MPH to struggling to maintain 20 in a very short period of time.  I had ramped my intensity nearly perfectly, so I was able to cross the finish line with almost nothing left.  We were feeling great about our time, and had passed 3 teams (they start us in 1 minute intervals) and were only seconds back of the fourth team at the finish.  This means we put nearly four minutes into some teams.  We came in with a time of 1:02:55, averaging just over 26 MPH.  We were happy with this, and I’m curious to see how much faster we would have been with 4 riders for more of the race.

We ended up just missing the podium and coming in fourth.  We were only 8 seconds behind third place (over an hour long race) and only 30 seconds off the time of the winning team.  That’s an incredibly small margin over that distance.  Something such as having all of us racing disk wheels could have made the difference between 4th and 1st.

As for me, I hadn’t done a time trial of that length this year, and while you get into a great rhythm in a tucked position at an extremely high intensity (note: burned 1250+ calories in an hour long race), as soon as you get off your bike your body protests loudly.  Ten minutes after the race ended, I was hobbling around trying to walk, and I couldn’t bend down to pick something up off the ground without worrying my legs would buckle under me.  I’ve gotten better since, but I’ll probably be sore for another day or so.

Also of note – I just submitted my upgrade request.  Cat 4 no more.