Nationals TT

First nationals event was the time trial, and my first event in a new team kit (results say otherwise due to some bureaucracy stuff). We prerode the course the day before, and man was it hilly. The wind was a huge issue on the downhill, making the bike hard to handle. Many of the girls (earlier start time) cursed using a 90mm front wheel. Luckily Suzie Brown let me borrow her 40mm front so I was in the clear.

Earlier on while we were getting the girls bikes ready to go, mine was leaned up against a tree and the wind blew it over. I didn't think much of it, and that was bad. About 15mins to start I hopped off the trainer to put on my race wheel and we found out the hanger was bent... Found out by shifting through the gears and the chain hopped the cassette and got jammed between the cassette and wheel. Luckily, pro bike mechanic Chris Komar and his fast hands were able to save the day. Straightened the hanger and got me there. I ended running to the start, quick bike check and was late by 29 seconds. Lesson learned, double check everything on your bike, don't just assume it is fine because it was fine before.

I was off, and I avoided the gears on either end of the cassette to be safe with the hanger. Didn't want to destroy another wheel and hanger like last year at catskills, and when we ran through the gears before start, we weren't sure if the smallest cog was safe to use. It was ok for the uphills, but I ended up doing more coasting than I should have on the downhills and probably lost a bunch of time here (since the whole thing was hills). Anyway, it gave me extra time to recover to pound out the climb.

After the first lap they said I was 12th (I started 17th so I wasn't last! many fast guys would follow). This was great news and I knew I was doing good (for what I expected to do). Second lap was a bit slower (strava says about 30secs over 21km) but gave it a great effort.

Finished 40th out of 50 starters. Might not sound great but I was super happy with it. Looking at everyone ahead of me, most of them have had great race seasons with many race days in their legs. Lots of them also were able to get away for the winter, and for many, biking is a full time thing. So 40th, with times near that off full time cyclists was great. Looks like it is possible to bike and be a full time student (maybe not financially, that is hard).

Road race is tomorrow, weather looks great and it should be crazy hard. It will be a great learning experience.

Pics below are not mine, taken from the canadian cyclist link below. 

Great pics from Canadian Cyclist: http://www.canadiancyclist.com/races15/roadnats/parttwo/index.htm

Results: http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=29731&title=road-nationals-men-itt-results

Garmin data: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/814909718