My First Time Trial

My summer has officially started today after finishing my last final for theory. Afterwards I rushed on over to Calaveras Rd for my first official time trial ran by our race team and timed by our director sportif. I had to give up going to our nursing program's BBQ afterwards but it was well worth it. Definitely one of the harder days of my life. Imagine going as hard as you can sustain for about 30 minutes racing against the clock on your own without drafting in the slipstream of something in front of you. A true test on the engine. The first rider was off at 1830 on the 10-mile loop gradually going uphill for 5 miles and coming back. The second rider would go 1 minute after and the third rider would go another minute after that. I was the third rider and nervous as hell as I didn't know what to expect. I was shooting for 34 minutes because I heard that was a good time.

I was off and it was windy as hell. Eventually, I caught one rider in front of me who was a minute ahead and dropped him on the way back. But also on the way back, I was dropped by some new lady who went after me and recently joined the team. She came from Austria (the Governator's homeland) and the day before, one of our team members joked around and asked if he could call her "Helga" LMAO. It was hilarious but dude, she is FAST! Faster than 3/4 of the guys on the team and her bike is well worth probably around $10,000. It was a Pinarello Prince with carbon wheels and top-of-the-line Campagnolo components. I pretty much had the crapiest bike lol but I came in 5th place with a time of 28 minutes and 45 seconds (20.870 mph average @ avg HR of 184 which is my LT zone). As usual, I am the youngest by a significant margin. It's amazing how fast those older guys/girls can go. Cycling is one of the few sports that you can get faster as you age and go until your 80s.