2011 ATC Warners Huis en Tuin Time Trial 42km - Almere

A few weeks after my time trial debut it was time to try it once again. Same place....Almere, but different and slightly longer course, blue skies, sun, but much more wind. My iPhone application tells me 33km/h with gust of 53 km/h for Almere at the time I was riding.

This time it was the Warners Huis en Tuin Time Trial, that falls under the Almere Triathlon Circuit.

My first time trial, I managed to average 36 km/h over just over 40 km....in time of 1:07, so for this race I set myself a target of 1:10. What I didn't take into account when setting the target was the wind....
Today was the complete opposite from my first race when there was hardly any wind. Today we had lots of it!

In between the two time trials I trained on my TT bike only 2 times, once on the road, and once on the Tacx. Also, with help of Eric and Chris I made many adjustments on the bike in the search for the best aero position. Last of the changes were done only hours before the race. So in total, I have not even passed the 150km on the bike....so less than 175km in aero position...not only in 2011....but in my entire life.

Upon arrival in Almere I got the bike out of the car and registered. It was time to go for a small warm up. Well, I thought I would warm up, but the wind was so strong that I never dared going into aero position as I was being swayed from left to right when on the bike. It was very unstable...and this is where experience comes into play as other more experienced riders didn't have any issues.

11.30. Men's Masters Start, long distance, 42km. Peep, Peep, Peeeeeepppp....and I was off.
The race course today was as follows:

As it was 42km, that would mean 3 loops of some 14km.

The wind today was from East which meant that from the start and all the way to about half of the loop I was going to be have strong headwind. Turns were sharp and quite tricky, but once you were in the second half of the loop tailwind would take over and great speeds were possible.

In all laps I managed to be in aero position for most of the time, except when on the long stretch all the way East on the course where the wind was so hard from the side that I was simply afraid to get down on my aero bars.

I completed the first loop in 25:09. Was not very happy with this as it would mean I was looking at 1:15 if I didn't speed up...this would have been 5 min behind my target time. It also took a little longer as I didn't know the course, so with that in mind I was set for faster times in the second and third laps.

Second lap I managed to gear up a little and push harder. It paid off as I finished my second lap in 24:41, almost half a minute faster.
The third lap I just continued with same tactics and pushed towards a 24:29 time.

Cumulative that would mean 1:14:18 for the whole race, with an average speed of 33.92 km/h according to the official results page. This time was good for overall 64th place out of 134 athletes (men/women). In my 40+ mens category, I snatched a top 30 place.... as I managed to secure 28th position out of 70 riders.

Am I happy? Yes I am.....OK....I didn't get to my target time, but I am thinking nobody did unless their uncle is Piet Paulusma the weather man.
I am happy as I managed to reduce the gap between the fastest man and myself. Few weeks back, in my first TT race the difference was some 11 km/h, while today it was only 7 km/h!!!! Fastest man averaged over 42 km's some 40.95 km/h.

What I am puzzled at is that race organizers claim the race is 42km....while my Garmin 800 GPS recorded 42.77km....

My speed chart tells the story of the day....high spikes in speed in the areas of the tailwind....

Finally, my aero position....it wasn't bad....I felt quite comfortable and I certainly had more power in my legs and that can be seen on the speed charts and my improvements compared to the winner (vs. my first TT race). Could I sit a little more forward on my ISM saddle....I think I can. Guess that will be the task for my next weekend brick training...aero ride and run following it.

It was a great day, even with all that wind. Event I will certainly come back to next year. I am even considering the whole Almere Triathlon Circuit in 2012.

My thanks go to the ATC organizers and more importantly all volunteers for making today a great success!

Finally, all photos above as well as on my sports photography web page have been made by my wife Ksenija who for the first time in her life took cycling photos....and she did an outstanding job!!! Thank you!