July 24, 2012 (Kemble, ON) – The time trial is an amazing discipline in road cycling. I enjoy it quite a bit… but it will let you know how disciplined you really are. There is no faking this kind of racing. You can’t “sit in” or coast at any time. It’s a true test, better known as the “race of truth”, and I couldn’t agree more.

The Bike the Bruce O-cup was this past Sunday and once again the organizer did a great job. I did enjoy the road race from years past but this edition of the Bike the Bruce was a 40km TT. The turnout wasn’t great but the few that did show were quality racers. Jordan Cheyne of H&R Block, Bruce Bird of WOB and my team mate Mike Mandel of RealDealRacing/LaBicicletta were the guys to beat.

The course was one that I like but it is also what most people like…. flat and fast! The wind was the big factor as we were right along the water’s edge and had to deal with it coming from different ways as we went around the bends in the road. We all had to deal with the constant changes but some are better at it than others. I will take the wind over a climb any day.

I have never beat Cheyne before in a TT and he started behind me being the last to go because of this, plus he beat me by over a minute at Nationals this year. He was 11th overall and I was 14th. This kid is fast. I look at him and wonder how he does it as he is pretty thin and not too muscular. What he lacks in mass he makes up for in mental toughness because he really does excel at this discipline and on Sunday he was the guy to beat for sure.

My carrot (the guy I was chasing) was no other than local legend Bruce Bird. This guy is always a threat in any race he enters. “The bird man” is as strong as they come. I have been “Birded” before and I give him a ton of respect no matter what type of race or distance. I knew he was a great guy to chase because he just doesn’t have bad days on the bike.

The TT started and I told myself to relax and not go to hard off the start. This is something I have trouble with and something most people mess up time and time again. It is easy to tell my coaching clients all about this, to stay calm and hold back, but then when it is my turn, it is so hard to follow my own advice. But on Sunday I did. It was tough to deal with but I held back and started off ohhh…so smooth.

I only saw Mike, Bruce and Jordan at the turn around as we all started two mins. apart. It looked like my gap to Bruce was still at two minutes and I felt like Jordan was inside two minutes on me. He was ahead at the turn from what I could tell. I came out of the turnaround hard and decided it was go time with 20km TT now and a distance I’m way more comfortable with.

The mental battle in that last 20km was wicked. I tricked myself a few times and thought about what I would be doing if I was about to pass Bird or another carrot out on the course. I thought about the silly things I can pull off when I pass people and the effort it would take to show off a  bit.  I also thought about getting passing by Andrew Randell last year at the National TT Championships in the dying kms. I picked things up.

I was so pissed I didn’t ride like that sooner. Why let him catch me only to go the same speed once he was in view after being passed. I thought about Darko and his bear grin routine and constantly tried to push a bigger gear without bogging down. The mental battle was incredible but I knew I was having a great day. All my thoughts were positive and the feedback (the speed) told me I was dialed in and having my best TT ever.

With 3 km to go I knew I was coming up to the climb before the finish. I geared down and lost all momentum on it. The only thing I could do was stand and sprint to it. I gave everything I had and got over it as quickly as I could. Being 197BPM at the top meant the last 1.5kms would hurt… real bad. I got on top of the gear as fast as I could and suffered all the way to the line.  I saw Bruce not too far in front as I crossed and thought to myself “I think I got him”- then I cooled down and found Mike doing the same.

I rolled back to the finish and heard the great news!  My first O-cup TT win and new course record.  It was quite the feeling and something I will remember for a while.  The gun show was out in full force and I enjoyed the buzz from winning.  You never know when it will happen again so I always try to soak it up and enjoy every moment.  Still lots of racing left so back to training hard and sharpening the knife.

Thanks for reading!