Fitchburg TT

After missing last years Fitchburg race, I was looking forward to getting back into local stage racing. Also, the past two weeks I've been flying on the bike and am hoping that my form would hold just a little bit longer. On Wednesday, I drove out to the registration hotel to get my numbers and pre-ride the course. Halfway there, the skies opened up and torrential rains started. This has become a regular occurance, each afternoon, a thunder and lightning storm of epic proportions rolls in, then 30 minutes later the sun comes back out and everything is good. Well, following registration, the skies had cleared and the roads rideable.

For the past year, everyone had been talking about steep the TT course was. It is just over 6 miles long and an average grade of 3%. During the preview, I found that the course did go up, but it wasn't nearly as steep as I thought. There were a couple of sections where you could recover, but not many. The last mile or so was downhill and another chance to make up speed.

After a proper warm-up, I headed over to the starting area. Seems every year the officials roll out the starting ramp, and every year some knuckleheads crash rolling off of it and the ramp removed. For the first time for me, the ramp was still there at my start. Awesome! From the gun, I hammered it. The first climb felt pretty good. I was trying to hold onto some power for later, but I just keep going harder. Cresting the first climb, my 30 second guy was in view and the chase was on. By the second hill, the 30 second guy wasn't getting any closer, but I noticed that my minute man appeared right next to him. Another rabbit to chase. By the third pain section, my legs were starting to quit on me. I felt like my speed was so much slower then it should be. Instead of recovering on the flats, I pushed harder. When the next hill came, I was spent and kept pushing. This pattern repeated many times. About 15 times more then last night's preview ride. Finally, on the left side of the road was the yellow gate that I noticed before that indicated the climbing was almost over. At this point my two minute (or greater) rider was in view and all that was left was to open up the legs, throw it into the 53x11 and hammer.

After what felt like an eternity, I passed a sign that said 1k to go. Really? Still another 1k? Yikes. I passed that sign and a rider at blazing speeds. Oh that felt so good to try to bring some respect to my pretty bike. We were flying when we crossed the line. Maybe I spent too many matches early in the race, maybe I didn't pace properly, maybe something else, but I know that I left everything I had on the course. The final time was 18:33 which likely will put me just inside the top 1o and one very happy rider.