So Dave and I (and a few other Bay State Tri Team members) raced the Harpoon Indoor Time Trial. Boy was I in for a surprise. We arrived at about 11am and it was 9 degrees outside. Fortunately we raced inside. The staging area was in the beer warehouse. So we grabbed some trainers, with views of some Harpoon UFO beer and claimed our warm up spot.

The race was held inside the bottling area. Fast Splits was the race organizer and had set up 3 groups of 8 Computrainers. Each group with it’s on multi large screen setup where they can view how they fared against other racers, where on the course they were, how fast they were going and how far behind a rider they were. Very slick. Dave compared it much to a carnival game where you squirt your water gun and try to be the first man to finish.

Come race time, we set up, got calibrated, which was a combination of weighing (so heavier riders got more resistance), and warmed up some more waiting for the race to start.

3.2.1… and the pain starts. My goal was to keep my PowerTap pegged at 315 (what I thought was my FTP). After about 3 minutes of pedaling I was in 3rd place in my group of 8, and falling behind. So the competitive side of me threw the plan out the window, upped my wattage to 350 and put my head down to catch up. As I approached, fellow Bay Stater, Frank moved into first and I moved into 2nd so now I had to chase him down. I was able to pass him and move ahead a few hundred virtual feet. As I pulled ahead, I noticed Dave moving into 3rd. We had a good group! Then the hill hit. Ouch. 1 mile of uphill pain. My lead diminished to 0. Frank and I crested the hill neck and neck and it was a 1 mile all out effort to the finish line. We climbed up to 30 mph, 35… maybe more. Neck and neck, 0 feet, 1 foot, 0…. We cross the finish line… unofficially 0.02 seconds apart. A fraction of a second? Are you kidding me? Reviewing my power file… 180 max HR, 336 watts avg.

We await official results… Dave quietly finished 3rd… just 28 seconds behind. Any longer and I’m sure he would have got us both! It was the hardest 8 miles of life. I was a sopping wet sweaty fool.

We’ve already signed up for a 3/20 team race at the Multisport Expo at MIT.

UPDATE: The official (unofficial?) results are in. There was some talk that the weigh-ins were inconsistent which could have led to strange timings… Regardless. The overall winner finished in 18:37.01. Basically an ass whopping if there ever was one. Your faithful bikers finished as follows:

Patrik – 96th – 22:06.77
David – 110th – 22:30 – unofficial, as the official time had him at 28:00 something…

Other Bay Staters:
Frank – 97th – 22:06.92 – 0.15 seconds!
Brian – 172nd – 23:54
Jeffrey – 238th – 28:15