Wildcat Mountain TT

Well, I think everybody dodged a bullet weather wise for this race. Heading to the staging area in my car, I saw a lightening bolt off in the distance (probably 10 miles away from the start line). I could also see rain in the area, but where I was at it was dry.

Getting set up, it was dry, but just before starting to warm up some rain drops started to fall. Some riders on the road reported some wet roads before warm up. However, due to a little wind and the rain stopping, the roads cleared up and were dry at the start. Once the races started the weather held through to the top of the climb. When we all came down, the rain hit and hit pretty hard with big rain drops and lightening.

The race it's self went well enough. The start is a 1.5 mile climb that averages around 8%, then is followed by a downhill that has some twisty sections near the bottom. From there it's a lot of false flats, low % climbs and a fewer higher % climbs.

All told it was 11.3 miles with about 2100 feet of climbing.

Last year I ran a little over 44 minutes, but with the wet weather didn't get a good idea of what I could do on the course because I took it easy on the downhill sections.

This year, I went all out, but still played it safe in a few sections ... but was able to shave off 3:40 from my time last season. Power wise I was a bit higher than last year at 333 watt average, but weighing 18 - 20 less than last year made a big difference overall.

I ended up 2nd in my category and 10th fastest time overall ... not a bad day for a bigger racer.

Next up ... Revenge of the disc in two weeks.

After that I may race the 2nd Revenge of the Disc, but may take the week off for extra training because the week after that is the two championship races (flat TT on Saturday and hill climb on Sunday). At that time my season is completed, but I may race the Eugene Celebration stage race just for the fun of it ... time will tell on that one though.