Howdy folks.
Here I am in the napa valley, nowhere else in the united states of america is there such a concentration of wine makers. As I ride to the race venue from our hotel, all I can see is row upon row of vines either side of the valley railroad. The railway company runs a special vintage train between the best wineries in the area which give guided tours and tasting sessions - a fine day out for wine lovers.
I traveled to napa on wednesday, leaving Santa Cruz which has been my home for the previous 4 weeks, in preperation for course training on thursday.
The weather is still very good, blue sky and sun but the forcast was rain for friday and rain it did, all day. It is back to sun now so everyone is happy. It only had a positive effect on the course' steep climbs and rough singletrack, making the 290 metres of climbing per lap a little less loose,and thus easier, and defining the best lines a little more.
So with three inspection laps on thursday and one on Friday I started my time trial with the course fully dialed in my head, so that I knew exactly where to make my efforts and which bits to be carefull on. My start time was 2.31pm so I left the hotel at 1pm for a 20min ride to the course followed by a specific warm up devised by coach Gary Foord. This was done on a turbo close to the start to enable me to get off at the latest moment before my start so's to be 'on it' from the off.
At 30 second intervals riders left the start untill I was up and gone ripping my lungs out going hell for leather round the 5km curcuit. With such a short lap every second counts so I was constantly out of the saddle sprinting to try and up my speed over the rough terrain. It worked out pretty good as I finished 56th from 121 starters only 1.05.52 behind winner Marco Bui (Italy-Marin) who won in 13.39.14.
Liam was best of the team in 49th at 1.00.59, then me, Jody 82nd at 1.27.43 and tim in 119th who unfortunately had a mechanical and did a great really considering he ran half the lap to finish. Unbelivably he was not last- someone must be even more trouble as they finished nearly 20mins behind the winner- he wil have sore legs tonite.!!
The cross country proper tomorrow will be a whole lot better with the inclusion of the TT this year as it allows the riders ability to grid them and not there UCI points making a more even race. Recovery will be of great importance so Adrian Timmis will be rubbing some life back into the legs this afternoon.........about now actually so I'm offski....... XC to follow.
Wilkster of hicup! hicup!...Napa
