Altamont Team Time Trial, April 4, 2009

Today I raced the Altamont 4-person team time trial with Team Webcor/Alto Velo in the Women 35+ category. We placed second of four teams with a time of 42:40. Team Kalyra was first with a 42:18. team Velo Bella was 3rd with 43:48. The Protech team was 4th. We would have won but for my fall at the turn-around!Course: Altamont Pass, Livermore, CA; 15.7 miles out and back; 600 foot climb each way. We had a very strong team, and BTW, we were the combined oldest, the youngest member of our team being 51 (total combined age 223- awesome!!). Hermes and I did a reconnaissance ride last Sunday and the winds we fought fierce winds from the NNE. I was hoping that today, with an earlier start, that we would be lucky with a light breeze – not so. Those windmills were churning with similar wind conditions. I opted for my deep dish carbon Easton Tempest tubulars, rather than disc and tri-spoke, and they worked well in the wind. We didn’t have an opportunity to practice as a team before today. We only had about 30 minutes to practice together before the race, and we tried our best to discuss any eventuality figure out what our order should be. Everyone had their strong moments; team mate Phyllis and I worked hard on the up hills and Pam and Linda were killers on the downhills. We hit over 41 mph. We did have two issues during the ride. I clipped a cone, cutting the turn-around really close, and fell, but was up in a matter of seconds. Luckily it was minor (skinned knee and a ripped leg warmer) and hardly impeded the team at all. Later we found out that the strongest time trialist on the Kalyra team, had also fallen, overlapping a wheel on the outbound leg. That gave me some consolation. On the return leg, one of my team mates got a leg cramp, and in a TT there is no time to stretch it out like one might in a road race. We had to leave her, but it was only a few miles to go. It appeared that most teams sacrificed a rider and finished with 3. Per the rules, 3 riders needed to finish within one meter of each other. This was a really hard effort and I was glad when it was over! We planned on doing a Wente loop afterwards but it was too windy. RFA and I did a nice recovery ride on the Peninsula instead.