The Masters Nationals Results and Data and more Pining

The chart below is the 10k Nationals time trial I rode in Turkey- 292 watts (3.9watts/kilo) for 14:43. That's nothing to sneeze at, [if you're me..] You will notice the speed going out is much higher than the return, but the watts are pretty close- almost dead nuts averages for both the out leg and the return leg. ( wonder what Nega Coach and Friel would have to say about my pacing here?) Winds were kind of wild and the roads were awful. If you didn't weave across the lanes to find the fastest line, the road was beating the crap out of you. They shut down one side of a four lane highway- with cops at every intersection. Chips were used for timing- a good PRO set-up was used with a huge red, inflatable finish "kite". What a site for sore eyes that was as I rounded the final bend, smoking my BB with an insane 97 rpm cadence.. Good times. I can't wait to go back. For that matter, I can hardly wait for the Bob Beal Omnium! I've already set up my old epx road bike with clip ons and I've been trying out different positions- it definitely needs a shorter stem.

The infamous 10k Nationals time trial where I thought I was 8th- apparently someone bellyached about being delayed or something and had their name shoe-horned in there, so now I'm 9th. Ugh. This was such a mind-fuck. Think of it- me -a good time trialist? I knew I'd be top 10- life is harder in Turkey- these guys can't train 1/2 as much as we can, they race 2-3 times a year, not 20-30 like we do. So being the 11th finisher, I was told I had the fastest time- one of the officials said that he doubted anyone would beat my 14:43. It held up pretty good for about 1/2 hour. I could hardly believe it- so I did not celebrate. though all my friends were patting me on the back and I let them.. Sure enough, the last guys to roll off were the ones with the best results from last year's nationals.. so eventually, I was knocked down to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,.. and finally 8th. That really sucked donkey balls. My benchmark was public information and everyone knew what time they had to beat, relative to beating me anyway.. So if you scroll down and look at the times, you will see that only 21 seconds separated me from the podium. I will probably pine about this for years and years, but I had no aero helmet, wheels, tt bars, skinsuit or disk. I was cannibal except for lycra shoe covers. I am soooo going back there next year and returning with a medal. But don't get me wrong, I know my place here. If I tried the US Nationals TT, I'd be hard pressed to do better than an anonymous low-mid field finish, at best. I can live with that, really.
I don't mind pointing out that in the road race, I was popped on the first big hill, and then turned myself inside out catching back up to the leaders, which happened right at the turn-around.. Needless to say, the road tilted up again at that point, and your hero was gassed.. I chewed through the handlebars to stay with the leaders, but the next hill was a wind-swept ball-buster, and I fell apart completely about 200m from the top. I was alone, completely alone.. Only about 12 guys were behind me all blown apart, and about 20 guys ahead of me- also blown apart.. But 6 of them opened a gap and that was that. I did another pursuit after this hill and picked up two guys to work with and we drilled it to catch back on to the primary chase group. When we caught up, we were 1 minute down on the leaders, and there was still about 40k left to race. Team mate Murat Akyazi and I had this group strung out the whole entire way to the finish. No one could be bothered to take a pull, and a few guys were dropped along the way. The gap kept growing though- there was not enough help. When it came down to 1k2go, I took a position at the front and watched everything. Someone launched a sprint from 500m out (they painted this on the road) and I followed.. After he blew his wad, I opened up my sprint and was passed by one of the guys who used the "It's not in my best interest to take a pull" tactic the whole way.. Check his TT time. Such is bike racing. That's all I'm gonna say.

Thanks for reading.