The 6 hour time trial was starting at noon in Indio. I was able to sleep in my own bed and drive to Indio in the morning. I prepared 8 bottles the night before, 5 Accelerade and 3 water bottles. Luckily the week before, I rode 115 miles on 400 calories and didn't bonk until 90 miles in. I figured 1000 calories and I would cruise through 100+ miles. The problem with starting at noon in Indio was the temperature was close to 90 degrees and rising. 5 minutes before the start I was trying to find a plastic bag for my cell phone. By the time I set Strava and got my phone in the baggy, I missed the start by 10 seconds. I chased down the group and there was still a rider up the road.
It's always nice to have a racing plan, mine was to hopefully keep the leaders in sight and then give everything I had after 100 miles. It was warm so I used my regular helmet instead of an aero helmet. Back to the race, I was quickly closing in on the leader. It was a female and she was a triathlete. I had no experience in these things so I stayed back 30-50 feet. After the first lap (15.8 miles) she stopped in the sag stop and I continued because I still had 1 1/2 bottles left. I wasn't in 1st place for long because she soon passed me around the 20 mile mark. She slowly started pulling away and I decided it was too early to put that kind of effort with 100 miles left.
She was now a little dot up the road coming into the next sag stop (31.6 miles). This time I stopped and picked up two bottles. I didn't have any sag support and had to get my own bottles out of my car and figured she had support so I would lose even more time. At about the 35-40 mile mark she wasn't gaining on me anymore. That little black dot up the road was getting larger and larger. I was thinking maybe it wasn't even her because my speed hadn't increased and I was gaining too quickly on this person. The closer I got I could tell it was her, so I started slowing my speed down. I didn't want to take 1st place so early in the race. I kept on gaining even though I slowed my pace down. She obviously went out too hard and now has hit the wall. As I was passing her around the 45 mile mark, I told her "We have a big lead, just finish and we have 1st place." She told me she needs a coke to get back to normal. Just as we come into the next sag (47 miles) she passes me up to be 1st into sag.
I get my bottles and take off and notice I have a front wheel flat. My car isn't too far back so I do a U-turn and go back to my car to fix the flat. The stem on the tube I used wasn't long enough for my carbon wheels. I had to quickly search for an extender to pump up the wheel. As I'm fixing my flat I'm also watching other riders coming into the sag. I didn't recognize any of them as my competitors in the 6 hour TT. I finally take off and figure it's going to be a long time before I catch that girl. After having to ride back to my car and fix the flat, I figured I lost about 6-8 minutes. That's at least 2 miles.
If I can maintain my pace, hopefully I'll catch her in 2 laps. Lap one (63 miles) goes by and no sign of her. Lap 2 (79 miles) goes by and still no sign of her. At this point, I'm figuring I can do 2 more laps within the 6 hour time limit and hopefully I'll catch her. Due to the heat, I took my last two water bottles at the 79 mile sag. It's getting close to 5pm and I can see it's going to start cooling down because the sun is going to disappear behind the San Jacinto Mtns. Still no sign of her and I'm preparing to come in for my last lap (94 miles).
The plan was to come into sag and tell everybody that I'm all out of water and get at least one bottle. The plan worked and some ladies came and filled up my bottles. I changed my helmet and put on my aero helmet for the last lap. I will have to average 20 mph for my last lap to finish in the 6 hour time limit. I figure if I don't catch her on this last lap she must've dropped out. I cranked out an awesome last lap (110 miles) and finished a few minutes under the 6 hour mark.
After changing and putting my bike away, I made my way to the finish line to find out what place I came in. 1st place! The day went according to plan. 5 bottles of Accelerade, 4 bottles of water, 2 hammer gels, 1 gu gel and 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich, 1 flat tire. 110 miles, 5:45 riding time, 1000 calories consumed and 4000 calories burned. Once the results finally were posted online, I checked to see what happened to that girl. She dropped out after 79 miles and finished in 3rd place among the females. http://24hrworlds.com/24/index.php?N_webcat_id=408
