We had fun. Bottom line. Will was happy that his dream for the past four years was finally coming true. He wanted to have a big team with dedicated riders who were putting team aspirations over personal priorities. He wanted a team of good friends who had fun. We had fun making ourselves look funny, and not taking anything too seriously. I wanted to wear my KONA jersey for the TTT, but I had to take it off, and deal with just riding on my mountain bike.
Wait, mountain bike?! TTT? What was I thinking?! Lets backtrack a little. Last Tuesday on spring break, before our morning ride, Nick noticed a crack in my seat stay on my road bike. A crack, that upon further examination, enlarged when flexed. I decided that even though I had probably ridden it for at least the day before, I didn't want to ride it that day. Just the day before, I had put my mountain bike together, enhancing the flat pedals with some longer 2mm pegs for better traction, and a new super heavy-duty rear tire. So, I decided to put the road bike away, and ride the mountain bike. I put in 45 miles on the mountain bike that day, keeping pace with some of my teammates. I rode Wednesday and Thursday on my mountain bike as well, and then we got some slicks to put on for the races on the weekend. But I put my bike on the back of a car with hot unfiltered exhaust, and the front tire had a melted hole straight through the tire and tube when we pulled into the hotel on Friday night. I had to throw out the melted front tire, and then swap out the rear slick to the front wheel, and then mount up my least knobby mountain bike tire for the rear. UGH.
So, Saturday morning, I was riding around on my mountain bike, with my Carhartts and Kona jersey on, looking like I was just having fun, but really getting used to the new feel of my mountain bike. When we lined up for the TTT, people asked us if I was really riding it in the race. I was. We weren't going for the win. We were going for fun, and for points.
Will, Tommy and I lined up for the start, and watched our other A team and our Womens A ride off. A Lindenwood team rode off, we waited a minute, and then rolled out slowly. Will led us most of the way for our 14 mile time trial, and the team behind us didn't catch us til a mile and half. The Marian team caught us a little later. We had a nice time, going along around 15mph or so, went up the long hill, and then around the turn around, where we noticed another Lindenwood A team on our tail. They passed us at the top of the hill, but we kept pace with them on the downhill and the flat following the bottom of the hill. I was spinning really fast, with my 44:12 gearing. According to Tommmy, we hit 36.5; much faster than I expected. We had some nice conversation on the return trip, slowed for a flatted-out Lindenwood rider, who was fine, and kept on for the finish. We rode across the finish three abreast, which was fun, and although we were last, it had only been about 45 mins, which was faster than we had thought it might have been.
"That was what I wanted us to be like. And thats what we were like. It was awesome. " ~ Will Nowak, President
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