Banff Bike Festivus

“You should get a TT Bike”

 

I heard this at least 10 times on Saturday, and maybe 5 more on Sunday.

 

I’ve never been strong at Time Trialing, in 12 years of racing on the road nothing has changed and can’t be changed through equipment. I don’t find them exciting, can’t bother to train for them when more interesting riding abounds, and these days I race about one TT per year.

 

So why waste time and energy stressing over a race that is out of my control? This year I did not want that stress. I promised myself beforehand that I would focus on individual stages I was good at and not stress out over a stage that played to my Achilles Heel. No worrying about position, converting bikes back and forth between stages and hauling special wheels and helmets around all weekend – just show up and ride. The time wasn’t pretty, but it felt so liberating!

 

Had there been a pro contract on the line, it may have been different. But I do feel this maximized my enjoyment of the weekend.

 

After a top 3 finish in the first two stages, then 5’30” down in the TT (48^th) – there was only one way to save face for the weekend – show up to the road race ready to rumble. I see the Tunnel Mountain Road Race as basically a MTB race: 11 laps with a few short punchy climbs per lap, a screaming downhill and some flats to link it all up. So when my legs felt uncommonly good I followed my plan to shake it up. 6 of us got away, with ~4.5 of us working over 70km until the gap had blown open to 6 minutes. It was a re-writing of the GC on the road and a great result for me (2^nd), but the sweet vindication of the TT made it feel greater. Now if we can only convince the ABA to go back to the “Mercx” standard…