Club members pedal to Gold: By Victor R

On Sat, July 26, four members of the LV Tri Club headed out to the high desert of Lancaster, CA for a run at the state championship team time trial. The team consisted of two men and two women. We entered the 180+, which means that our ages combined have to exceed 180 years. The competition involved teams of two and four riders. Two-rider teams were grouped from 70+, 90+, and 110+. Four-rider teams, 140+, 180+, and 220+. There were four-man teams, four-women teams and mixed squads, the same for the two-person competition.

I contacted Eric Knutsen several weeks ago and asked him if he was interested is forming a mixed squad. He replied by saying that he would ask his wife Colleen and Julie Cutts. I was happy to hear that we could race together. Eric is an established time trialist with plenty of experience and results to prove it. Colleen has a wall full of jerseys she has earned over the last few years. Julie earned a state, 4-woman title last year with Collen and two other ladies. I have raced with Eric on several occasions, last year we came in third and this year we earned another third, both two-man time trials. Last year, I was fortunate to have raced with Dave Ellis, Tony Gonzalez and Dave Kelsey on a four-man team, we topped the board with a championship. All of us have had some experience in time trialing, seems like a winning combination, wouldn't you think?

We decided we needed some practice, and practice we needed!!! The first practice was sort of a go-hard session with little planning and organization. Eric employed all of his experience, wits, and, with the help of his lap-top and a nifty program, came up with a plan for our next practice, huge difference, we had a system which took in consideration all aspects of time trialing. The next three parctices were picture perfect, we had it down!!! We left on Fri morning and I must admit, I was nervous as a hooker in church!!!

Upon arrival, we checked out the course and rode a few miles. The wind was howling, it was hard to stay together, we couldn't carry on with a productive practice. On the morning of the race, the weather was perfect, 68 degrees, 5 mph winds and sunny. Our start time was 7:26am. We all warmed up on our trainers, the announcer called us to the line, it's time to perform! The course was an out-and-back, 24.8 miles (40 K). Everything went well, the plan worked, the end result was to our liking, a victory!!! We didn't know how well we did. Waiting for the results to be posted was a bit tormentuous. Finally, we learned how we fared, a time of 54 minutes, 41 seconds, 5 minutes, 19 seconds ahead of the second place team!!! It was another wonderful experience for me having raced with such great athletes, I thank them all for the opportunity and would love to do it again in the near future.

I urge all club members to participate in a time trial, the race of truth, you against the clock and, if you do a team, members depend on each other, just a little more pressure!!! After all, we do a time trial in every triathlon we participate in. Looking forward to the club's mini-tri on Sun, Aug 17th, hope to see you all there..............Race fresh, don't train!!!.............Who said that?..........Victor