I got driven to New York with my roommate for the few days
away, Richard Bartolo. We managed to get out of Canada before the whole
Burlington Skyway accident happened luckily. The drive took us around 7hrs from
Hamilton with maybe one too many rest stops but it was good to get out and
stretch the legs. After picking up some groceries we set out to find where we
were staying. It is a little apartment atop of someone’s garage. I thought it
was going to be tiny but once we got in the door it was quite roomy. The “high
speed” Internet was at dial-up connection speed and only could get the Wi-Fi in
one room. The U.S. text plan was a waste, as I had no cell service here. I was
hit with a single bed for the next few nights, but hey racers are supposed to
be known for being broke and roughing it, right? Finished the day off with a
pre-ride of the TT course and race packet pickup. I unfortunately broke a spoke
on my pre-ride so that meant no powermeter for the TT. The hills here are
amazing and the scenery is outstanding. The one problem is that there are so
many trees so it can be hard to get the views sometimes.
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| Car all packed up! |
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| Some of the lovely scenery here in Catskills |
First day of the race was a 16km time trial, up a gradual
hill and back (but not all the way back down it). My knee is finally starting
to feel good on the bike after messing it up in a mountain bike crash just over
two weeks ago. I got to the “pre-staging” area, where I assumed the volunteer
there was sending people up as their time approached as he was calling out
times to go up every minute. My start was at 12:06, and he sent up 12:05 so I was
ready to go. I kept looking at my clock and he said 12:07, so I sprinted up,
worried, to the start line where they sent me off immediately as a late start.
I was furious! There must have been a miscommunication of some sort, but it
seemed like such an unnecessary way to lose 36 seconds as I was standing there
waiting for the 10mins leading up to the start.
I started the TT off with anger and sprinted up the first
few inclines before settling into a hard pace. They say go harder on the uphill
so I kept my heart rate around 4-6bpm above normal. Before the turn around two
guys passed me. It didn’t feel great as I was giving it everything I had but I
kept pushing through. I was happy to see the turn around as it meant I was well
past halfway time-wise and it was downhill the rest of the way. Running a 54-11
I was able to keep the pressure on the pedals when the speeds got over 60km/h.
I passed one of the guys that got me on a downhill. I was feeling good! I think
I got too excited as my legs were starting to call it quits on me and I could
feel my pace ease up a bit. The guy passed me one more time but I kept him
close right until the finish. I congratulated the guy after on a nice TT, then
went to shift into my big cassette when BOOM! Chain skipped off the cassette
into the spokes, snapped two spokes and the derailleur hanger, and bent the
derailleur cage pretty good. At least it
happened once I finished… After arguing with the commisaires about my start
time (to no avail), the race director was nice enough to give me a ride back to
where I was staying because my bike was obviously unrideable (I biked to the
start line).
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| Derailleur shouldn't be there... |
After this I realized I needed wheels to race on for the next
two days. I headed to the local bike shop and they fixed up my powermeter wheel
on the spot and I left them my zipp wheel to fix overnight. These guys were
awesome and saved my weekend. I am sure I could have gotten a wheel from
someone but this mentally helped me. Stay tuned for next two days of reports
and more photos once I get home to good Internet!
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| Nice cloth numbers pinned and ready for stage 2! |
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