I woke up around 5 AM and felt a slight twinge in my left shoulder. I considered that odd because it's never given me a problem before. I just finished getting dressed, hoping that this wasn't a sign of things to come. I had packed my gear bag the night before, so all that was left to do was fill my water bottles and load-up. I strapped my beautiful Cervelo to the back of my car and off I went to pick up my girlfriend. We made our way to the start are in Venice and took this picture at the starting line.
After I loaded up my jersey with my ID and energy gels, I kissed my girlfriend for luck and headed to my bike. The triathlon was generally well organized and the bike-only group was told where to go. We crossed the timing chip mat and off we went. I was so nervous and excited at the same time, that it took me a full block to clip my second foot in but once that was set, it was ON; no stopping pedaling after that!
I had a pretty good spin throughout the event and averaged 18 MPH which is not bad considering that there were some significant hills. I'm still always amazed (and slightly embarassed) when other cyclists can pass you as if you're standing still; there are people out there that can just hammer away on a bicycle. I had the experience of being passed by both a male and a female pro rider. The female was next to me one second and almost literally, the next second later she was 200 yards ahead. The male pro I could hear coming from 50 yards back because he had a full aero set-up and sounded like a Mack truck and he passed me like one too! I was doing almost 20 MPH at the time and I might as well have been standing still, he passed me like it was nothing!
One of the main reasons that I really wanted to do this ride was because it's a completely closed course; you don't get many opportunities like that in Los Angeles. One of the wonderful sites of this ride was turning on to Wilshire and seeing a long string of red traffic lights for the entire distance. The LAPD did a great job of keeping the roads closed and safe for the racers.
The only negative part about my morning was my experience on the last hill, right at the edge of downtown. It's really my fault for not shifting properly, but I ended up dropping my chain half-way up a monster grade on the 1st street. I had to unclip, get my chain back on the cog and then start, all while on this incline. Fortunately, I did not have the same clipping problems and got back on track. I think this cost me a total of 90 seconds or so, but that's the way it goes. I made a mental note to prepare my gears better when approaching hills.
The end of this ride involved a long, steep descent on Grand with some bumpy intersections. I didn't throw myself down the hill like I wanted to, but still kept up a pretty good pace. In spite of that, I had another speedster with a full aero setup pass me and blew out the hill. From there, it was a quick flat ride to the transition area and the end of the ride.
Overall, a really fun event with a (nearly) flawless ride. It was well run and I got a nice medal at the end of it all. This event was a great way to open my season and I'm really happy with the way it went.
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