New TT PR

Sunday was the Carlisle 40k ITT. Nice warm day with a head wind on the first 20k and a really nice tail wind on the trip home. I set a new PR of 0:52:37 almost 2 minutes better than my previous best. It was good enough for 1st place in Cat 3 and 3rd place overall. I only lost to 2 cat 1-2 guys so I can't be too upset but winning is always more fun.
Second race of the day was a 7 mile uphill time trial that was started as a mass start. The first two miles were flat and at a fairly easy pace. That let me hide my legs that were still fried from the morning 40k. As soon as the race headed uphill someone jumped. He had fresh legs since this guy wasn't at the 40k. One other guy jumped on his wheel and I followed. There were only 3 of us and I thought I may have more left than I thought. This feeling didn't last long because as soon as I sat down after my acceleration I knew I was dead in the water. From there on out I went at my own pace and struggled but ended up finishing 10th place. My time in the morning race was enough that it would have given me the win if this had been scored as a stage race.

Tuesday racing in Shippensburg

Today I did the Tuesday training race in Shippensburg. It was painful as all of my experiences with road racing seem to be and my legs were still tired from Sunday. It was a good workout and now I just have to take it easy until Saturday's race in Virginia.

On a side note, I went to Pittsburgh Probikes on Saturday with Rich. That is one awsome store and I was highly impressed to say the least. As you can see above, I had a chance to sport my new Probikes shirt at the race on Sunday.

My extended weekend of riding and racing

Friday was 75* and sunny and I was headed for the hills along the border between VA and WV. I was riding to Reddish Knob, which is a 8-10 mile climb that dead ends at the top in a parking lot. Great way to spend a day.
Saturday was the running of the First Annual Bridgewater, VA to Love, VA Century(Made up by me, for me). This ride may happen more or less than yearly but since it's my ride that's what I'm calling it for now. This happened to be the coolest day of the weekend with intermittent mist and barely any sun.
This is my version of taking Ag3r to new heights:)

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. Other than Easter it also happened to be the running of Paris-Roubaix and therefore in Harrisonburg, VA it means Harris-Roubaix. Harris-Roubaix is 3 laps of a 16 mile course, 12 miles of which is gravel roads. My race started out well with me following the first attack of the race and then making my own attack leading up to and starting the first climb. After a split in the race, I got caught on the wrong side of, I was charging hard with one other guy trying to catch the lead group. All seemed to be going well until we crested the second hill on a gravel section and I flatted. I stopped to fix my tire and then started again and got my second flat less than 1/2 mile later. At this point I threw in the towel and rode slowly to the to the finish line and the post race pot luck dinner. Then when I was getting ready to go back to my car someone pointed out that my handlebar was snapped. It must have happened when I dropped my bike to the ground at the finish line. Upon removing my handlebar tape I found that all that trainer time this winter led to a large salt build up which was weakening aluminum. Luckily it didn't snap during a ride:-)

In short it was a great extended weekend of riding in western VA.

New Ag3r flophouse

After May 15 it will be official but I bought a new house. It's less than 5 miles from the start line for IronCross and less than 5 miles from the start line for the Carlisle tt series course. Just let me know if your going to be in the area and need a place to stay. Great riding, both road and mtb, right out my front door.