Spring weather has made for some highly variable clouds the last couple days.

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!

IMBCS #2 Ingawanis

We had a nice full day today, about 350 miles of driving with a race in the middle. This was IMBCS #2 at Camp Ingawanis near Waverly IA. With all the rain and snow over the past week, it would seem that course conditions would be questionable and we'd been getting email updates from the director that parts of the course would be removed and re-routed as required with total length determined day-of. During the drive, we passed many crop fields with either a remaining coating of snow or standing water which couldn't drain away.

Once we arrived, the venue area seemed to have drained out pretty well as it's located at relatively high elevation. This was a low-key event run by extremely nice people. No USA-Cycling officials, just a verbal count-down and "GO". 

I did a crappy, crappy job on the start-gate sprint and wound up working around several people over the first 1/4 of the lap. Due to course modifications implemented to accommodate the weather, we were only doing like 5.25 miles and only a single lap at that. Finish times were around 30-minutes so it was a short one. I finished 5th in my category and Corrine finished 2nd in hers, putting her on the podium! Cody's rear derailleur folded into his wheel spokes and was completely destroyed about 10 minutes after the start. On the bright-side, there are still series points for DNF? Bummer because Cody had already gapped the entire field and had only one straggler holding on. That almost certainly would have been a first place finish. Next time.

I don't really have any trail pictures, only the open grassy area used for start/finish. It was pretty fun with a bunch of flowy singletrack. There was also an unintended mud pit at the end for flavor. 

The race director and team had provided a big crockpot of pasta as well as cookies etc. and I saw the below object off to the side. This is a boy-scout camp (all race proceeds went to the scouts) and I think this was some sort of food which was left in a fridge last summer and was just discovered today? As mold goes, there's a pretty impressive color pallet. It's also pretty good at growing up and out of the pan. 

I think these podium logs were broken - Corrine is second place but still way taller than first. Maybe it's just the photo angle?

Up Next: IMBCS #3 Seven-Oaks Rec!

Frigid Flowers

Wow, accurate weather forecasting, who knew. I was pretty sure this "snow" would be just a dusting that imitated a heavy frost. Measurable snow falling at this time is pretty historical and has only happened a few times in the last hundred years. Last year on this day, it was almost 90°F!

It started innocently enough in the evening.  

We went for a walk to pick up some pizza and it was definitely going to be a little hard on Tulip Time at this point, it was still just menacing flurries. 

The next morning, it was clear the snow meant business.

I did fund the plowing of 1/4" snow depth somewhat comical.

After the storm was over, we had a forecast for pretty quick return to seasonal normal temps.

Once the heat turned back on, people came outside again. The food booths were bustling along.

Tubs for the street scrubbers had ice/slush on them.

Many of the West-Market Park vendors had a rough go of the weekend. Lots of collapsed tents with the fabric removed and frame haphazardly discarded. 

I think a person could have collected these and made a few good ones from the parts. They were all over the place. 

The snow melted off pretty quick and the city did manage to run a single day and night parade on Saturday. 

Spring!

Hard to believe we've got snow in the forecast for this week. Most certainly a great day to soak it in while we can. The amount of growth around the yard seems to have almost doubled in 24hrs!

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!

Racked and dry hopped.

=