Fiesta Island TT 20K
January 21, 2018 – San Diego, CA
Cat 4 – 2nd – 27:35
278 watts – 26.7 MPH

I thought it was time to get back in the routine of filing regular race reports/results. I’m starting with the January Fiesta Island TT put on by UCC Cyclery and the San Diego Bicycle Club. This race was part of the SoCal TT series, so I definitely wanted to do it. My legs were dead from running earlier the week, but I was doing this primarily as a training ride anyway. The one thing I didn’t expect was the chilly conditions.

I’m used to temps being in the 50s for this event, but not the 40s. My Garmin read 35-40 F on my warm-up, which is definitely on the cooler side for races that we have here. Still, having been in WI in single digit weather earlier in the week, this weather was “warm”. OK, it still felt cold to me since I’m mostly acclimated to SoCal weather. I was fine clothing wise, but wished I had long fingered gloves at times.

I ended up having a good race with my second fastest time on the course. My goal was to get up to speed fast, try to hold it, and then push at the end. Looking at my power values, I paced myself well most of the race. I actually didn’t go out too hard, held consistent power of 275-280 watts for most of the race, didn’t die on the second laps, and then really hammered the last mile. That’s exactly what I wanted to do and was pushing over 300 watts average to finish. My time was good enough for 2nd place in Cat 4, but the guy who won had one of fastest times of the day and would have placed in the Pro/1/2 division. Oh, well, that’s racing.

Looking at my photos from the race, I think it’s time to have my position checked/tweaked. It’s been years since I was properly fit, and don’t know if I accurately transferred dimensions between bikes over that time. Will have to see how things turn out!