Sandy Hook Time Trial
April 2, 2005
By Joaquin C de Baca
I made the trip out to the Sandy Hook time trial this Saturday, no less than 12 hours after I had stepped off a plane coming back from the Mexican Yuccatan coast. If you're looking for system shock, try a direct transition from sunny Mexican paradise to cold, rainy, windy New Jersey time trialing. Made the drive out with Jon Orcutt who provided mounds of good course advice as well as some tasty aero wheels. Jon's start time was roughly one hour earlier than mine so I had plenty of time to warm up, making sure I got in at least two hard efforts before I went to the line. I'm currently sans TT bike so I just used my road bike with clip on aero bars and Jon's HED wheels as a makeshift rig. The course is a 7 mile out then back on one road, pretty simple. I got a smooth start and immediately felt like I was flying because of the strong tailwind. Unfortunately my computer went dead before the race so I was riding entirely on how hard I felt I was able to push myself. The tailwind was so strong on the way out that I didn't even feel fully red- lined for the first couple miles, yet still felt like I was keeping a screaming pace. I caught my minute man within the first 3 miles, and was definitely hurting by the time I hit the orange cone at the turnaround. All that sailing away from the start was immediately and seriously paid for once I turned around. The wind coming back was smothering, and it may have actually been a blessing that I was unable to see my speed (I'm sure it would have been demoralizing). Everything from the turnaround to the finish line is just a blur of lactic acid, hard breathing, and howling wind pushing me in the wrong direction. The only encouraging bit was knowing that most everyone else would have to deal with the same thing. All told I ended up placing 9th in the 4/5 field, with a 19:13 as my course time. Times all around were much slower this year, most by more than a minute thanks to that return headwind.
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