Elkhart TT Finale

I don't have much for photos from this evening because, on the final day of the series, I also entered the Elkhart TT. It was....a long, straight piece of road that I tried to ride on really fast. 

Corrine and Rick both ended the series with a first-place overall!
Cody and I were, if nothing else, not last place.

Elkhart TT #4

The fourth of five Elkhart time-trials was today. It was a beautiful night to be outside, just a little warm with a constant gentle breeze. It seemed there was a slightly smaller crowd this month and I'm guessing the Iowa Games had a thing or two to do with it. 

A pretty standard time trial for spectating - watch people ride off down the road and then they eventually come back. Highlights included Corrine getting another 1st place which locked up her 1st overall in the points series. It's now a sure thing even if she doesn't show up for the final.  A new one for me was a sighting of a bamboo tandem bike!

Elkhart TT #3

About midway through the Elkhart TT series and Corrine has picked up some real time trial gear - it was time to try out the aero helmet today. There was no wind to speak of but stiff competition. The new helmet helped with a personal best course time, and a fourth place finish. Enough points were collected to stay on top as the overall leader. I think there are two more races to go. 

Elkhart Time-Trial #2

The second Elkhart series time-trial was tonight with wind blowing from the opposite direction that it had last time. Rumor was that North wind makes for the most difficult runs on the course. It seemed to make everyone a few seconds slower but I wouldn't call it a huge difference (unless you're losing by a few seconds I suppose). 

Corrine handily laid down a second-place finish and collected plenty of points to maintain her first-place overall status in the series. Three more Elkhart races to go!

Elkhart Time-Trial #1

Corrine and Cody registered for the whole Elkhart Time Trial Series this year. I'd never actually been to a time trial before so, other than a basic understanding of how it worked, I wasn't sure what this really looked like. It would stand to reason that a person could get desensitized to seeing blingy hardware rolling around all over the place but this time trial crew takes it to a whole other level. It's amazing the things that are done to save a couple tenths of a second on 20 minutes. For example, a skin-suit in itself is not fast enough but it also should have a golf-ball-like texture on the surface of the fabric. 

It was a pretty good time. After wondering if we'd ever see 60° again, it was a great thing to stand outside and see blue sky without needing gloves and a hat. There was a decent little breeze blowing which appears to increase everyone's times. This is an out-and-back course which is about 3.5mi each direction. You can't go fast enough with the wind behind you (return leg) to make up for how much the wind slowed you down in the first half. People were coming back through the finish over 30mph though. I did see one guy with a cape on his back that was supposed to turn into a sail when the wind was behind him. I do not know how that worked out (illegal I would think?).

Apologies to the guy on the far right below - I did pin your number plate on with a large wrinkle in the center and it may have slowed you down. While I do have more than one season of experience pinning plates onto other people at the last minute before races (thanks tobacco chewing guy at Night-Cap), I'd still consider myself an amateur. 

After getting the lay of the land, we unloaded and setup. We brought a trainer to warm up on (so pro right?). 

That's pretty much where the start is located. The road was not closed to car traffic and the race used both lanes.

This series appears to have a really big turnout!

Cody won the door-price raffle which was a fairly $$ aero TT helmet. You can tell he's excited to go.

Corrine out of the "gate".

Next stop: Camp Ingwanis IMBCS #2, a little over a week away!