The Race of Truth...Nebraska State Time Trial

The race of Truth - and the truth can suck.

Yutan Veterans county club. Soggy conditions Saturday morning that cleared up for a nice day.


Truth be told, I've never been a good time trialist. Nope. (Why on earth would I think that I can do triathlons well now?) Actually, the first real race, other than some 2 lap criteriums reserved for Citizen racers (The old Cat 5 category), was a Time Trial out in Ashland that Gary Mulder's dad orchestrated. Gary's dad Bill was the Nebraska USCF district rep back when we had maybe 75 licensed riders in Nebraska in the early 80's. The Ashland Course was an out and back course very similar to the Yutan course where the Nebraska state time trial championships were held last weekend. After getting spanked at that my first official TT and realizing that TTing is not my forte and I've spent most of my cycling career avoiding them. Yes, I know they are good for you, it is the race of truth after all, but really how many times does your ego need to suffer such blow? That said on Friday morning at the swim meet, I made a last minute decision to take one for the team. I rushed home Friday between the morning session and evening timed finals and got my TT bike in order, and signed up for the race against the clock. Yes I do have a TT bike, not very special, but puts me kind of in an aero position. I even pulled out all the stops and found a used Sew up to glue on my 20 year old thread on cassette hed disk rear wheel. Speed demon.

You see, I try to adhere to the theory that to be well rounded cyclist, you need to submit and practice all types of the cycling disciplines, even if that means sometimes you have to do things that you don't do very well. That could be doing a mountain bike race, a Criterium, a road race, or even a time trial once in a while. I guess that keeps things interesting. And really...I hope...it's like money in the bank. Hopefully next TT will be a little better especially heading into Tri season.

I do enjoy seeing lots of peeps doing Time trials that otherwise would not line up for a Criterium. I guess from a growth in cycling perspective, we always hope that some of these folks that maybe only do Time trials and Triathlons, also try lining up for some of the other bike racing at some of the other local events.

So how did it go? Well - not bad and not good. I averaged 23mph and maintained a pretty low heart rate. So that's good because I could ride a decent pace without straining too hard. But what that tells me is my heart...literally was not into it, and I was bottom middle of the overall pack. But that's good because that means there are a lot of fit riders out there in Nebraska that can crank out a good TT. Of course what's bad is being a cat 2 and that they always seem to line you up last and then well...everyone passes you... First Joey McWilliams, then Ian Robertson, then Marc Walters, then eventual winner Jarred Berger. End of the line boy...then you start maybe not going as hard as you could...etc etc. I suppose its no different than it was that First Time Trial I did way back in 1983 when I got spanked that day too... High five to all the winners.
Also this weekend was the Capitol City Classic... I know what your thinking, the Capitol City bike race already happened, nope, was the Capitol City Classic swim meet at Woods Pool. This was the big outdoor long course meet for Lincoln this year and Lincoln Select Swimming team, the kids team, ran the meet. Started Thursday night and went through Sunday night. Both kids had great swims. They do have a little ways to go and need to punch it a little to get into the long course swim mode. Amazing what a difference it makes going from a 25 yard pool to a 50 yard pool. Big time differences when you can push off the wall every 25 yds. The meet took up a bunch of time this weekend, Jen and I timed both Thursday night and Friday night so that was pretty fun. The kids had to swim all 4 days so by the evening last night they were pretty fried.


Abbi leaving Woods after a day of hard swimming Saturday.

I did manage to squeak in a ride yesterday afternoon with Jay T. We boogied out hwy 2. he had to get back early so he bailed in Unadilla, I pressed onto Syracuse, then Hwy 50, back in O street. What a nice loop. Hadn't done hwy 50 for a while because the shoulder was so bad. All new now. Got back just in time for Noah's 800 free. Perfect way to finish off the weekend.

Tour de Nebraska riders finishing up in Syracuse on Sunday. These guys were my rabbits between Unadilla and Syracuse. Two bad Joe, Jarred, Ian and Lee weren't as easy to catch on Saturday's TT.
Have a good week!