A very short TT

Hey hey, the first race (if you want to call it that) I've actually completed this year! Despite a Thunderstorm threatening to ruin all of our fun, a couple of us braved the elements and put in a solid 8 mile TT. Traffic was fortunately (or unfortunately if you believe the draft is a real bonus) very calm, at least for me. I chose to ride in my triathlete getup (P3sl, Castelli Stealth top w/shorts, Kask helmet) instead of my TT setup mainly because I had thrown on a single ring 44t in preparation for Rev3 Knoxville (if I end up doing it) and wanted to have a ride or two in on it.

Fireworks, Olbas oil and the crappy Kask visors.. what more could you want

The last time I rode this course was all the way back in 2013, a much simpler time. Looking at my old logs, I ran a 19:28 (243w/261np) on Jun5,  19:22 (244w, 267np) on the 12th, and 19:57 (230w/242np) in reverse (and I have a note that I blew up) on my Planet X.  Last Wednesday I managed an 18:56 (don't laugh... 217w/240np) on my P3sl. What does that tell us... well for one thing, that a 44t single front chainring equaled me spinning out a little more on the rollers than I had expected. Of course it also unfortunately tells us that I'm still not in the kind of shape I was in a few years ago. (although if you look at the gap between watts and normalized I think a little of that at least was the 0's taken into account from not having a downhill gear.)

On the bright side it also confirms that the changes I've been making for aerodynamic gains have been powerful.

Tri Setup with a possibly too small gear

It's ugly to say the absolute least. It definitely wouldn't make it through any respectable fitter's shop without some serious scrutiny, but I'm past the point of caring what the majority thinks is correct. I only want what will make me go faster.

So how did the actual race go. I got pretty handily crushed by the studs, but that was to be expected. I was more interested in seeing how all the gear worked in preparation for some Aquabikes. This coming weekend I'll get a chance to test out the TT equipment in an even shorter TT (2.2 Miles... holy crap that's going to be miserable from start to finish...) where hopefully I can close that gap with some of the strong dudes. I'll report back on how that turned out ;)

As a total unrelated aside... I have a little rant.

So, a lot of us (myself included) have been interested by Giro's new TT helmet that we spotted last year around the TdF. For a while it seemed in question as to whether this thing would actually be available for purchase or not (Pro riders had access to the snub tailed Giro Selector for years and it never made an appearance to us... although you could argue it is modified by the team mechanics I suppose) well... the other day Giro finally updated their website, and...

It was finally announced that it would be available to the general public... for $550!!!

Look... I think this is a cool helmet, and I'm a gear nerd (as you already know) but really? $550??!?
That is insane, and I say that as someone who has bought a couple of $300 helmets. I'm not saying Giro won't sell (quite a few most likely, but I doubt they care... I'm sure this is mainly to appease the rulings on no equipment not available to consumers) of these helmets, but good lord. When Specialized "S works" helmet is the bargain buy by $250 you know you're marketing toward the upper upper echelon. If things like the S-works TT and Poc Cerebel are "superhelmets" than does that mean we're entering the world of "hyperhelmets" now?  I don't know, but hopefully the next generation of aero lids doesn't follow Giro's lead in the pricing.

/rant

Well, thanks so much for reading! Next week, maybe a little more racing!

- Christopher Morelock