Race Report: Withrow TT

I attended the first cycling race of the year. It's the same once a month race that I've done for the last few Summers. It was postponed a day due to rain on Tuesday night. But Wednesday was really nice with a favorable northwest wind. That direction helps push us through some of the rolling hills on the course.

I usually rest the day of the race but because it had been delayed, I hadn't been on the bike for 3 days. So I decided to go for a short ride at noon on the day of the race. However, as usually, a light ride with the company group soon became a hard ride. But the legs felt good and I was ready to race.

This year the organizer decided to send us off 2 at a time instead of individually every 30 seconds. The guy I started with was a very strong rider and it turned out that we were about equal. He got off to a fast start but I then caught and past him. Then we went back and forth a few more times. At the final turn we were still together but now we are catching bunches of slower riders. At one point I had the outside line and had to accelerate to make sure the other guy didn't get in front of me and force me wide or slow down to stay out of his draft (which is forbidden in TT races). Once I got around the group of 4 rides I give it all I could for the final mile to the finish. I was able to stay ahead of my starting partner.

The results were posted later that evening and it turned out that my neighbor Jeff Ingham took 1st place and I took 2nd out of 40 riders! My start partner took 3rd. It was my best TT ever. That's a good omen for the first race of the year.