Victory Favors Preparedness: As The Raven Flies Time Trial

Digging deep into the final 200m. (Photo from http://leonardjohnson.zenfolio.com)

The Time Trial, Le Contre La Montre, the Race of Truth. There are many names for this simple contest. Individual cyclists ride a short course and the victor is chosen based on time. As The Raven Flies was the second TT I’d raced, and the first that wasn’t apart of a stage race. It was an exciting opportunity to test my legs and to see where my fitness was at going into the season. The Race of Truth.

I showed up with plenty of time to spare, the rain had mostly stopped, and I was feeling good about the race. As I test rode the course though, I noticed my crank arms were loose. I only have one power meter that I transfer from one bike to another, and I thought I’d forgotten to get it fully tightened before this race. With twenty minutes before I was to be on the start line, I set out to try and find someone who had a 10mm allen key.

Talking to a number of riders who were equally mechanically unprepared as myself, I started to worry I’d just have to do the race with my crank loose. Then, at the end of a row of cars, I found a rider warming up who proffered me use of his fully loaded Parktool tool kit. But when I tried to tighten the cranks, I realized they already were. The real problem was that I’d forgotten a washer when I put them on. Well, “fuck it,” I said, I’ll do the race with loose cranks anyway.

Sitting on the line, a race volunteer supported the rails of my saddle while they counted down the time to my start. The course was six miles out and six miles back, with a decent amount of elevation gain for a TT, so I knew I had to pace myself on the way out and then excavate deep into the pain cave on the way back.

Cuz’ that’s how you race a TT. Only problem was, going up the first climb my loose crankset allowed the chain to slip off during a shift. I was forced to dismount and pull it back on, loosing valuable seconds and momentum. This just further motivated my drive for the rest of the race though. And while I was unable to make up the lost time to take home the W, I did set a personal record for power output for a 30-minute period. A sign of peak fitness and a strong season to come!

Until next time, Ride On!

Kyle McCall

@UpwardProgress