Today I raced the Battenkill Time Trial. I don’t race a lot of road races, but I do like time trials. I guess it’s probably because the races are relatively short and you push yourself to your limits over the entire course. Actually, sometimes beyond your limits.

The Cat 5 race was a 15 km of a mostly flat course that went out and back. There was a slight down going out, which means a slight up coming back. But it was still a very fast course back too. It was hot, but low humidity and no wind. Yep, it all makes for a fast course.

While I’m still not fulling comfortable on my Focus Variadoa TT bike, it was still a huge advantage for me over riding my Jamis Ventura Elite road bike. I raced the 2010 edition of this race, on the same course, on the Jamis and this year’s time was 11 minutes 9 seconds faster than 2010. Sure, I’m a bit more fit this year and we had much better weather conditions this year, but the bike is also a huge improvement for me. And I can’t forget that my Rudy Project TT helmet and Hammer Nutrition are also a big part of my improvement.

The end result for me was a 7th place finish, in a time of 26:44:82. I was more than 5 minutes off the winner’s pace (that guy was just a monster), but I bettered my personal best by 11:09:07.