Two Wheel Blogs

Twenty-nine of us turned out last evening for the finale the 5 week long Wednesday Night Timetrial series. That's a far cry better than the 5 of us who made it out last week in the cold and rain. I think it's safe to say weather plays a role. Yesterday's conditions were much more inviting. Temperatures were in the upper 60's and the winds slowed into gentle breezes just a few minutes before race time.

I'm happy to report that I finished top of my field once again, completing the sweep of the Cat 4/5 class. Time to upgrade, to Cat 4.

Can a 20 minute long race be considered epic? It may not by the strictest sense of the word; but for me the 4th Wednesday Night Timetrial falls into my epic category. And I don't think I'm alone. More accomplished racers than I used the same term tonight.

I think we sat and chatted for an hour before a third competitor showed up. Joe runs the races. I help him put them on. If a third hadn't shown up we wouldn't have ridden.

As it turned out three others braved the chilly wind and rain tonight. Four men and one woman in total would compete. Add two additional volunteers and a USCF official and we had a race.

The wind switched itself around for tonight's event. a tailwind pushed us to the turnaround, putting a premium on power management.

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Oh the irony.

The winds today are forecast to be all the way down in the single digits come time for tonight's TT Series race. That's quite a bit better than it's been in the three previous weeks. Temperature looks good too - high 60's to low 70's °F.

Too bad about the Heavy T-Storms part though. Lightening and flash flood warnings don't bode well for bike racing.

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Hey the weather's been just too good here lately to not be out riding. Since my last update I raced the third of five races in the Wednesday Night Timetrial Series, followed by a better than expected 3x20 session yesterday, Thursday.

Ah, but who wants to talk about pain and suffering in intervals. Let's talk timetrial. There's plenty of pain and suffering there too.

You know how some times you warm up and you're just not sure your legs will come around? Nine times out of ten they eventually wake up. Somehow in the excitement you find it and your performance comes through. Sometimes you're even surprised at how good that elusive performance turns out to be. That was not the case for me Wednesday night.

It's Sunday afternoon already? What happened to the weekend? There's nothing like a bike race to make a day go by in a hurry. Yesterday I did the first two races in the 2008 Tour of St. Louis - the Carondelete Park criterium and the Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area timetrial.

The Tour of St. Louis is actually a 2-day event. There is a criterium on Sunday morning in Forest Park. I skipped that one, opting to make the weekend into something better resembling a stage race. A couple of emails and a phone call later I'd landed myself into a couple of hours of hard (for me, at least) riding.

Weekend stats

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Last night we held the second of five races in the Wednesday night Timetrial series.

Despite weather conditions much improved over the previous week's race, turnout was a bit lighter last evening. Only a couple of dozen, give or take, riders showed up to test themselves.

Weather wise, temperatures at race time were in the middle 70's. Winds were out of the east at about 7-9 mph.

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