Rob took the State TT today, putting another Senior Men's Champ jersey on a Midtown Smoker. Dude went 29mph for 40k - that's blistering.
I put in a solid ride at 52:52 that set a new PR by a decent margin, at a higher average speed than I've ridden for any TT length at all. The Peoria course was all backwards with the headwind on the way out and tailwind coming back, which had me thinking that I was on a serious off day for the first half until I realized that 25mph was not, in fact, due exclusively to my legs but also to some gusting headwind. I didn't look at the clock on the way there but coming home was in the 29-31mph range the whole way so I'm sure the difference in the 20k's was in the range of 3-4 minutes.
On a technical / geeky note, I traded the steel frame in for an aluminum Fuji Aloha 1.0 TT bike. Previously I estimated my CdA on the steel bike at 0.265 and figured a moderately aero aluminum frame would get me down to 0.250. I didn't ride with a powermeter but using that number I get a range of 340-350W to do today's ride, depending on wind etc. So it's approximately correct. Now, assuming I did 350W on the upper end, how slippery would I have to be to gain the 1kmph or so to get close to Rob? About 0.230. Really slippery guys my size would be around 0.220. In layman's terms, quite a lot more aero. Like, more than just using booties and giving the legs a fresh shave. More than taking the gloves off and putting a visor on the TT helmet. Way more.
Dude is fast.
