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| 2017 12 Hour Time Trial WORLD CHAMPION! (Is this real life?!?!) |
Race Report Time!
12 Hour World Time Trial Championship Race – Borrego Springs, CA
My husband and I flew to CA and rented a home for the week so that I could continue to work through Thursday, and do my training/taper rides on the race course in the evenings.
My coach flew in to help crew for me and we chatted strategy the day before the race. I really didn’t know the caliber of my competition, as I couldn’t just stalk their results on USAC or USAT bc there was also a Rider from the UK & from Italy. We decided that I’d start out on the fast end of my 12 Hr effort level, while temps were cool, & he would monitor gaps. IF I built a decent gap over 2nd Place, he would step down my power gradually until I was holding the gap steady. The goal here was to do everything necessary to win, but nothing more, because we didn’t want to burn matches unnecessarily that I would need during my ZA Semi-Final workouts a few days later!
Friday afternoon, we got our crew area canopy set up, picked up my packet, went through bike inspections, and attended the pre-race meeting.
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| Packet Pickup – listening carefully to ALL race day instructions! |
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| Discussing Game Plan with Coach 🙂 |
The race was ridden around an 18 mile loop for the first ~11 hours, & then we were switched to a 4.8 mile loop for the last ~hour. Crystal Spearman, Great Britain, and I were neck & neck for about the first 90 Miles. My coach informed me at the end of lap 6 (108 Miles in), that I had a 7:30 gap built, & instructed me to dial down my power just a little. We continued to step it down ~5W every lap until lap 10, and I held that output steady for laps 10-12.
The wind really started howling around lap 10 (~8 hours/~162 Miles in), and while this definitely made the race more difficult, it worked to my advantage because I am very strong in high winds.
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| Somewhere mid-race, gritting my teeth a bit as I leaned into that wind! |
By the end of lap 13/11 hours/234 Miles in, I had built the gap to 17 minutes, so my coach & I agreed that I would back it down considerably, & use the final hour on the short loops as my warm-down Time.
I finished the race with 248.4 Miles under my wheels, & a huge grin on my face!
Crystal Spearman (Great Britain) finished 2nd, & Anna Mei (Italy) finished 3rd.
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| 12 Hour World Time Trial Championship Ladies Podium |