Near Miss

A few weeks ago, I stopped by Bicycle Alley, the bike shop down the road from me. Hanging in the window was a fine looking Trek "Team Time Trial" bike. Full carbon, sweet Bontrager stem and bars, wing-like frame, saddle with a gel nose, and ten-speed Dura-Ace. "That's a nice rig in the window," I said to the shop owner.

"You should take it out to the local club time trial sometime and show it off to everyone. Maybe someone will want to buy it."

Well, you don't have to twist my arm. Although it was intimidating having custody of a $4600 rocket, I picked it up Monday night, spent a couple hours in the attic tweaking my position on it, then took it out to the Tuesday night ten-miler.

Even with my relatively heavy HED tri-spoke and disc on the bike, it's still pretty light. The new Dura-Ace is very nice. I'd never ridden it before. It's smooth and shifted like butter. The bike itself was very comfortable to ride, yet felt stiff and responsive when I stood up and put on some power. With the light weight and stiffness, it only took a couple pedal strokes to get it flying. I also noticed the sound. Or rather, the lack of sound. I could hear the swoosh, swoosh, swoosh of the wheels and tires as I pushed along, but that's about it. Very cool. Finally, about the gel Selle san Marco saddle: with its "triathlon" labeling, I expected it might not be my style. But, ahhhh... all that gel in the nose was welcome to the nether regions when perched on the tip during the time trial. When I got done, I realized that the only pain I'd felt during the ride was from my legs. My saddle bits were feeling just fine.

In the end, I came in at 23:20 and missed my personal best by 12 seconds. However, I usually don't approach 23 minutes until August fitness, and other measurements seem to indicate I'm not particularly fit right now. I figure the bike was good for at least an extra 30 seconds or so. I'll be taking the bike back to the shop, as it's not in my budget right now. But, oh man, if I had the money to burn, that ride might have found a new home.

I'm hoping that my position changes are responsible for some of the time gains, and that it wasn't all due to the bike. I have yet to take my own TT bike, the venerable GT Edge Aero, out with the full aero setup (disc instead of the PowerTap wheel) for an official time trial with my new position. I will continue working on the TT intervals in training, and will keep aiming at that sub-23 time. I declare, it WILL HAPPEN this year.

See you on the road.