Club Members place at California Time Trial: Victor R.

Club members ride TT, bring back results!!!

This past Saturday (June 7) the Ca/NV state team time trials took place in the quaint little community of Lake Los Angeles. No, it's not near LA at all, it's located 12 miles east of Palmdale and there isn't a lake in a 50 mile radius!!! Actually, the location is perfect for time trials, high desert, long flat roads, minimal traffic and if your start time is after 9am, you're going to fight a head wind, a tornado or some kind of weather phenomenom somewhere in the 40K long course.

I hooked up with Eric Knutsen and his champion wifey Colleen who owns quite a few medals from past time trials. We all piled up in this great big black Suburban, filled to the hilts with bikes and equipment. The other passenger wasn't going to race this weekend, his racing days are over, retired and having the time of his life, his only purpose in life is to eat, rest and what comes after eating........ Who is this character? Well, he's a grayhound Eric and Colleen adopted a year ago..........Magnus the magnificent!.........The rest of the members piled up in a great big white Suburban, also filled to the top with equipment and an unusual traveler, a 6-month old Doberman Pinscher who answers to Belle...... We're in like Flynn with PETA!!!......

Oh, the humans were: Kim Watson, Julie Cutts, and Maria Cleveland. Let me paint the picture, the ladies participated in the 4-person team TT, Eric and I slithered into the 90+ (combined ages, no! we're not old!) two-man TT, and the K-9's gathered all of the attention. Want to meet your soul mate? Get a dog!!!...........

The trip took the better part of 4 hours, during the lengthy trek, we discussed the stragety required to medal and after countless inputs into the computer, the final answer: GO HARD!!! Kim and the rest of the gang (white Suburban) somehow could not figure out the directions given by the onboard GPS, took a wrong turn and were heading back to Vegas, and the darn thing talks to you!!!....Go figure! After checking in at the mighty '6', we did a little more strategy analysis on the lap top, the other final answer was: GO HARDER!!!...........

Tom Bodette woke us up at 5:30 am, our start time was 7:48am and the ladies scheduled for 8:05am. On the way there, we raided the local Starbucks, fueled up with some strong caffeine, inhaled yogurt, bagels and headed out to register and warm up. After finding a spot to park, we set out the trainers, fed the D. O. G.'s and began our quest. I was cranking out some wattage on that trainer trying to loosen up, after a half an hour, I worked up a nervous sweat. Eric was busy setting up his bike and everyone else's bikes, he had no time to warm up. The officials were calling our number, number 19 to the line, he whined, it's HAMMER TIME!!!.......

I started out in front to give Eric time to warm up. I was folowing directions Eric tactically taped to my top tube, everything was going according to plan. We carried our strategy to the letter 'T' and the end result was good. The ladies had their own plan and their result was even better. Capt. Colleen piloted the group to a scorching ride! Eric and I claimed a respectable 3rd out of 9 teams, 50:34 for 40K, average speed, 27.8 mph, we were on the podium........mission accomplished!......The ladies topped the field and claimed their gold medals and a state champ jersey, 52:40, way to go!!!..........

The trip home was very pleasant, Eric drove, Magnus slept, Colleen watched a DVD and I mumbled nonsense to keep Eric entertained. As far as I know, the white suburban made it home or, did they? GPS?.......Anyway, that was our weekend. This coming Saturday, John Harrington and I are heading to St. George to take part in the Utah Summer Games tri, John is doing the sprint distance to round up his trifecta, I'm indulging in the olympic. Eric and Collen are taking the weekend off from racing, I'm sure they will be busy training for the next event. Lisa Job, Annette Powell and Coco Salah will be doing the Danskin All-Ladies tri held in Disneyland, CA. This will be Coco's and Anette's first tri of the season and Lisa's second. Stay tuned for results from Cali and Utah..........Thanx for reading............Victor............The only race you can't win is the one you don't enter!!!