Rainy and Cold Makaha TT

Cambio's control center, calm and collected, prior to having to really scramble in the torrential rains.

Temporary dry conditions were had by most of the students from Kamehameha who started early.

Back in one piece at the finish - Kushima-san and me...

Soaked through and through...

This past Sunday was the first race of the 2008 Hawaii Cycling Season - the fast and short Makaha TT - about 10 miles or so of pretty flat riding (well except for that last long drag into the wind and slightly uphill). And, it looks like LOTS of people were waiting for this first race as there were over 100 riders...

Woke up pretty early to pick up my Japan friend, Kushima-san, from Waikiki and we headed out to Oahu's west side, to Yokohama Bay, where the race started and ended. The weather looked pretty cloudy but dry. All weather reports indicated that an off shore Kona storm would hit late Sunday.

So much for island weather reports. Right at about 7:50ish or so, it started to drizzle. Then some really heavy looking clouds appeared over the ocean, the wind picked up, then at about 8:05 or so.....it just DUMPED for about 10 minutes or so...really hard. I thought Cambio may hold the start, you could hardly see 20 feet in front of you for a while...but the show must go on!

Because of the rain, I decided to back out the rear wheel on my P2C so that the water wouldn't build up behind the shaped seat tube - don't know if it helped or not...

I soldiered over to my 8:20 start time in a medium drizzle...I sucked...why am I doing this...autocrossing is SO much more EASIER and FUN (especially if you WIN!!!)...and I was really looking forward to this race too...

I could tell from my warm up that it was NOT going to be a premium performance...right out of the hole, I had to really meter out my output into small small small increments as legs felt worse than a limp rope...I figured better I ride moderately so I don't come to a complete stop into the Kona winds on the way back.

On the super storm assisted way out, I shockingly got up to over 60kph soft pedaling my weak legs in my 56x11. I really fought the bike in the exposed sections, afraid the front end would washout on the wet roads and white lines, I rode the tops in those sections.

At the turn around, I saw Alika, my "back" minute man, and all the other fast guys after him barreling into the turn around...I thought I was going to be caught for sure. Then I remembered the Tour of California...really...where guys who went out too fast in the TT lost ground on the more difficult way back...feeling so crappy at the time, that's the best I could hope for. So I decided to race with my "mind" (instead of my legs) on the way back...and concentrated super hard and never dared to look back...

Into the wind, the steeper section near Makua Cave was really hard and I figured standing would take more energy than staying seated grinding away in the aerobars. Then after a short downhill, I hit the difficult into the wind - long drag to the uphillish finish. As it was years since I did this TT, I misjudged the finish after a short blind right hand bend...and had to really bear down as the finish was a bit way longer...I was relieved not to get caught...

I gotta really start waking up earlier to get used to doing these lactate threshold rides so early in the morning...oh well...

RESULTS:

1 Mike Zagorski Elite Men 1/2/3 0:21:54 - 27.4
2 Eduardo Sa Master Men 35+ 0:22:35 - 26.6
3 Tony Lang Elite Men 1/2/3 0:22:52 - 26.2
4 Ray Brust Master Men 35+ 0:23:07 - 26.0
5 Carl Brooks Master Men 35+ 0:23:15 - 25.8
6 Ricky Armstrong Master Men 35+ 0:23:20 - 25.7
7 Steve Chirco Master Men 35+ 0:24:13 - 24.8
8 Steven Serikaku Master Men 35+ 0:24:21 - 24.6
9 Alika Chee Elite Men 1/2/3 0:24:28 - 24.5
10 Tai Blechta Elite Men 1/2/3 0:24:54 - 24.1

FULL RESULTS: http://blog.teamcorehawaii.com/files/113326-105816/2008_Makaha_Overall_Results.pdf