20-25 mph steady crosswinds and 102 degrees. yep, it sucked. reeeeeeal hard. at least i got to go buy a new 3G iPhone afterwards to ease the mental pain of sucking so hard. there was at least 1 person carried off in an ambulance b/c of dehydration. he collapsed on the course, curled up into a fetal position, and had dry heaves. so the witnesses say. i saw the ambulance go by while i was waiting to start but didn't see it actually happen.
i had a full bottle at the start and it was empty at the u-turn. my time was REALLY slow. partially b/c i suck in the wind but also b/c I had no fluid the last 30 minutes. it sounds gross but i was licking the sweat off my forearms and sucking on my skinsuit just to get some moisture in my mouth b/c i had cottonmouth and 12.5 miles still to ride - at max speed into a head/cross wind. i made the u-turn at about 29 minutes, holding back a little on the way out. so i was on pace/aiming for a 57-ish minute time - pretty slow, or slightly below average for the P-1-2 category - and I just DIED the last 5 miles. I slowed to a crawl, lost what little power I had left, and got passed by 3 people who started behind me. but at least i made it to the finish w/out the help of an ambulance.
mental note: aero shoe covers may give you 10 - 15 seconds over 40k. but in 100+ degree heat, i'd have to say they hurt more than they help.
my teammate, erick benz, won the Pro-1-2 with a time of 00:52:05.32 and an average speed of 28.63 mph. that's just 3 seconds off the course record set by David Wenger (erick's coach) in 2007. not too shabby for a 45-49 year old with wife, child, and demanding career, racing against a bunch of single 20-somethings.
the guys in Le Tour de France amaze me. they can ride a 54km time trial at the end of a 3-week race full mountains, hills, wind, rain, high speeds, crashes, etc, and their average speeds are 2-3 mph higher than our fastest, nationally competitive local guys, riding when fully recovered on a pancake flat course which is 14k shorter. i don't see how they do it... oh wait, they have EPO. how could i forget?
I'm no thief - I'll buy the photos when the photographer has finished uploading them all:
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