ABD 2-Man 40K TTT
May 9, 2009 – Garden Prairie, IL
Masters 30+ – 3rd – 58.25.080
231 watts – 24.1 MPH
Each type of time trial has it’s own complexity and challenges. Individual TTs require inner focus and strength, while 4-man team TTs require organization and fluidity. The 2-man TT is somewhere in between. Personally, I think the biggest challenge is communication. You’re a bit like a two-headed monster. One head can’t live without the other head and if you don’t cooperate, you’re dead.
After placing second in the Cat 4s last year, Jeff Holland and I were set at trying to win the Masters 30+ at the ABD 2-man TT. We did a practice run the night before the race and felt pretty good about our chances. We knew we would have a strong 20 MPH headwind during the last 10 miles, but we weren’t too worried–everyone would have to deal with the same race conditions. We planned on taking 1-minute pulls, allowing just enough recovery time. Sporting our new team kits from Pactimo and an array of the best gear from Max Lelli, Hed, SRAM, and Saris, we felt like a million bucks and oozed confidence.
I met Jeff up at the race, since Rose and I were heading to Madison afterwards for Mother’s Day. This made for one full car as you can tell by the photo below (NOTE: Most of the stuff is mine!).
Here’s the Isaac Joule Aerotic decked out with Hed, Saris, and SRAM bling.
Our start time put us right in the middle of the order for the day. We’d have plenty of teams in front of us and a few immediately following. One team in particular was hot and we knew it. Randy Warren and Newt Cole were contesting the Masters 40+ and were starting only 2 minutes behind us. Yikes! Talk about heat right on our tail. Our plan was to get into a rhythm and get up to a nice fast clip with a tailwind on the way out, then take turns hammering on the way back.
Things started well and we set into a good rotation. Having the tailwind helped, but I was probably a little too frisky. Jeff had to keep reminding me to soft pedal when I pulled through to take over at the front. It’s hard to remember to do this when you’re coming off a rest behind the other rider and want to take off. You need to let the other rider pull off and sneak in behind you. Too much acceleration and they lose your draft and can quickly get gapped. Smooth “hand offs” are the key to keeping a steady pace.
After the first turn into the wind, things started to get dicey. I could tell Jeff wasn’t 100% and was struggling to maintain power into the wind. We kept plugging away and were less than thrilled to have 10 miles of the wind after the turnaround. I volunteered to take longer pulls, as Jeff said he was toast. It turns out were were totally mismatched, when we thought we would be perfectly matched.
I was coming off a rest week, while Jeff was cycling off one of his hardest training weeks. Not a good combination. In situations like this, you really understand the meaning of team time trial. You aren’t suffering on your own, you’re not succeeding on your own; you have to work together as a team since your time is determined by when you cross the line together. I learned this in my first team time trial with Tim Hermanas back in 2007. I had been sick and Tim was in great shape, he basically pulled me the entire way. You feel bad, but then are thankful that you had a teammate with you. Thanks to Jeff’s willingness to give it all, despite not being 100%, I was able to score crucial points for the yearlong MATTS series. We ended up with a respectable podium finish in third place and had the second fastest time of the XXX teams in the race. In fact, we had 8 XXX teams which was the most of any club at the race. It was a great team performance especially with several Top 3 and Top 5 finishes.
Jeff and I hammering at the finish to finish third in the Masters 30+.
Jeff unfortunately broke his collarbone the following week on the track, so we won’t have a chance to do the Wolfgang Freitag 2-man TT in July. I would imagine we’ll be back next year for the ABD 2-man TT next year, hopefully more in sync with out training. Watch out, because we’ll be force to be reckoned with if we’re both on…