About a week before this race, I was talking with a friend of mine about my upcoming events. I mentioned that this was one of my "A" races for the summer. My friend said, "Good luck." I said, "Well, it's a time trial, so there is not a whole lot of luck involved." I was wrong about that. This course has a turn about one mile in. It's a weird, off-camber corner where the roads come together from three different directions. There is a soldier standing there as well guarding the gate that is at this corner. Well, a white pick up was coming from one of the other directions and it was allowed to turn right in front of me. Luckily, I did not run into it. But, I did have to come almost to a stop. The truck then proceeded slowly in front of me, so I had to wait for it to pull off the road into a parking lot before I could pass. What a frustrating spell of bad luck. My goal for this day was to average 25 mph and I could see that going down the drain in the first five minutes of the ride. Even so, I felt great the rest of the ride. I was staying well over 25 mph most every time I checked my speed. I rode the last two miles in about 4:25. At the end, my computer said I did 10.08 miles in 24:06 for an average of 25.1. The official result had the same time but bases the race on exactly 10 miles. That made my official average 24.9 mph. So, even though I know I met my goal, I will go back next month and try again. I want that official result to say 25. Maybe I'll have good luck in September.
