clarks tt

this is a lot of words without pictures:

So I figured I needed to get in a little dirt riding at speed on my scalpel before I dropped it off with Ohran for the trip to BC. I replaced the cables with GORE, swapped out the chain, and tires and wanted to make sure everything was working well under stress, what better way than a uphill dirt tt. I also wanted to get in a short effort sandwiched between some spinning on the road, Draper was perfect destination.

After packing all morning, waiting at the downtown post office to get the kids passports, and attending a checkup with Rosie and the girls it was 2 pm before I made it down there. Rosie dropped me off in Sandy and I had a stiff head wind down to the trails but was happy to have a tailwind for the way home.

So the tt went pretty good, if you call hurt'in good. Clarks is a freeway and does not offer much in technical challenge to keep your mind off the pedaling but I guess it is good for a tt as it is not as exposed to wind and less variable from day to day. The scalpel worked good as I locked out the rear and kept the fork active for the first half and then locked for the upper part. I rolled with 40ish lbs in the tires as a good chunk of my ride was on pavement. My 19lb hard tail with carbon tubulars would be ideal but is not quite together yet, even better would be my 17lb cross bike or 16lb road bike with 25's on but the idea was to test out the scalpel. In hindsight I should have at least left my water bottle, tube, wrench, air can, etc at the bottom.

Anyway, I got into a pretty good rythmn right away and pretty much stayed seated with a high cadence the whole time. Because I have only ridden down clarks (in the race) I did not know the landmarks and the finish sign snuck up on my pretty quick which I guess was good because I was feeling it, although it is always more dramatic to sprint to the sign and collapse.

Using my cell phone stop watch always a fun surprise because you can't see your time until you you pull it out of your pocket and stop it.

Today it stopped at 8:58:18.

Good thing I just cracked 9 min or I would be mad I did not know the time and punch it a little extra at the top.

A 95 degree weekday is ideal for tting as very few people are out riding and you don't have to worry about the dreaded BK head on but I was drenched in sweat from the heat, and I guess humidity, judging from the thunder buster I got caught in on the way home.

So because this was my first run I don't have anything to compare it to but because it was as fast as I could go today I am happy with it. Surely I can take some time off it in the future. Maybe a few weeks into cross season after some intense racing, I will give it a go.

Afterward I ate a 6inch turkey/marinara subway and spun to Ohran's where I got a good rub by Jamin, that's the life!