Can’t really write much about the time trial. It was 6 miles, finishing up a gradual 1 km climb. Pretty windy. 25+ mph. I was just riding my road bike with no aero stuff. I thought more guys might be doing the same, but I’d guess 98% of the field was riding a TT bike. I rode moderately hard the whole way. Just enough to make the time cut hopefully. I was a little over 15 minutes. I heard the Rory Sutherland or Ben Jaques-Maynes rode under 13 minutes. Hopefully not 12:36 or below or I’m out. Seems wrong for a 20% time cut in a short TT like that. I didn’t sand bag the thing. There have to be a few guys that aren’t going to make it. The bike would make up at least a minute in 15 minutes. Maybe more. The rest is the complete lack of power that I’m experiencing.

The criterium tonight should be interesting with the swirling wind.

OK. I did an hour long interview with a super nice girl from the Minneapolis paper this afternoon. She kind of keep getting to what keeps me involved/excited about this sport. Today is one of those things. But, not in the way I appreciate right now.

I missed the time cut in the time trial this morning. Pretty big surprise to me. I thought I had ridden hard enough to have at least a 30 second cushion, but it was not to be. I had underestimated how fast these guys could go. Last year here, I changed my bars to aero and rode as hard as I could and ended up in the 50’s or somewhere around there. So, I blew off the aero equipment and rode just hard enough. Guess not. My cell phone was ringing off the hook about how I was going to get back into the race. Other riders wanting to get back in. The promoters, etc. I didn’t try. I missed it by 3 seconds. I’m a numbers guy and a 20% time limit seems pretty fair. Maybe not in such a short TT. But, that was the rule before the race. There weren’t any extenuating circumstances. So that’s the way it should be.

I’ve never missed a time cut in my life in any race, bar none. Never in a road race. Never in a time trial. Now I feel a little stupid not riding harder, but there aren’t do overs here. I wasn’t very motivated since the beginning, but that is not a excuse. I entered the race to race the race through Sunday. Now I’m in a weird place mentally. Something I haven’t experienced ever before.

It was pretty weird watching the criterium that I’d won a couple years ago. I was sitting in an outdoor bar patio drinking beer. It was virtually the same old boring stage race criterium racing. 8 Bissell riders lead for the first 3/4 of the race, then 8 Healthnet ridrs set tempo the last 7 laps. Kirk Obee won again.

OK. Not sure what I do the rest of the weekend. I hate watching races that I think I should be racing. Hopefully I will learn something here. I haven’t yet.