Last Sunday I did the first race of the Winter Series with the San Jose Bicycle racing club. It was a 15.6 mile time trial. I was ranked as a CAT 4. I was doing well all the way down Santa Teresa, and was even passing the riders ahead of me as we climbed up Willow Springs. Some were shouting “upgrade” to me, indicating that I should be moved to CAT 3 or something, but they didn’t know my own skill is hill climbing.

On the way back on Oak Glen I was down in the aero bars when I suddenly came up to a big and deep pot hole in the middle of the road. There was no time to avoid it show I hit it directly. I looked down at my tires and didn’t see any blow out but figured that I would get a leak because I had hit it so hard. Sure enough within a minute my front tire was flat so I had to stop and do a quick change. That took me at least 5 minutes, but would have been longer if I had not had a CO2 inflater with me.

I ended up with a time of 0:53:39.35, and with the 5:30 handicap for CAT 4, that gave me time of 48:09:35. Jim W came in 10th place at 0:45:51.76, or with a handicapped time of 0:40:21.76, so he did much better than me, even accounting for time to change the tube. I was near the bottom with my time, but assuming 5 minutes for the flat, I still would have been in the bottom half. I am not very good at time trials. Joseph had a strong 9th place finish.

Here is a picture of Jim after the race with his carbon wheels.  With those wheels, his bike is super light.

Categories: Cycling Racing
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