GS Ciao TT #1 was tonight.
Results for this 10-mile Boulder TT will be posted at this link:
Recordracer.com

This is a 5-race series with a race every Wednesday for the next five weeks. I was really pleased to hear about this race series as Colorado does need more time trials, plus the added bonus is having this in the evening and finishing just a kilometer from my house. What could be better than a weekly "neighborhood" TT!

Anyways, the joy was short lived as the pain settled in very quickly after the start. I had a bit of an unexpected rabbit from the gun when Davis Phinney happened to head up the road just about 30 seconds before my start. It took me a good four minutes to even catch him, and he was not even racing or in TT mode. The guy can still crank it out and I've seen him hammer up in the mountains too in recent weeks.

So once I finally caught Davis I had another few minutes before I reached the top of the first climb. Man what a tough start. It takes about six minutes to get up the first hill. I set my second highest CP6 of the year at 419w, but my highest was set (at 428w) in AZ 4,500ft lower than Boulder, so if you account for altitude I set a new record today. Nice bonus. I could never just do that in training alone.

The next battle on the road is a set of two rollers which will stop youi your tracks if you went out too hard from the start on the first climb. I knew to back off a bit leading into these short hills so I could roll over the top of them with good speed. if you enter them too fast and with too high of a "burn" or lactate build up you'll easily loose 30 seconds on each roller.

In the back of my mind I knew my teammate Chuck Coyle started only 30 seconds behind me and I'd measure my result today by whether I could hold him off or not. The last five miles of slight downhill were probably harder for me than the early hills. I don't tend to roll too well on the flat terrain and knew I'd have to have a full effort if I wanted to hold Chuck at bay.

In the end I had a good ride and I did hold Chuck off. I do not know the results at this time but hope to have a respectable time. I think Will F. is racing so I suspect he is the odds on favorite to win.

Caio!
DF