Big Bikes

Dover Wednesday Night TT

No racing for me this weekend, big wedding, had to get in touch with my inner belligerent moron along with some good old friends. I did have a hankering for some competition later in the week so I conned Uri into hitting the Dover Wednesday night Time Trial with me. Oddly enough “The Dover Wednesday Night Time Trial” is held in Dracut on Thursday morning at 4AM and they don’t time you, they (the homeless gentlemen gathered under an overpass) stomp and spew profanity seemingly oblivious to your presence, then when you come to the finish line (it’s more like a pile of broken glass in a puddle of urine) the “timers” huck broken bottles and human feces at you while spouting further profanity.


Sorry, not too much to say about the actual Dover TT, we showed up, it was Honduras humid and car with all the windows up in the Disneyworld parking lot hot out. Uri had his new TT set up and a skin suit, I had my human wind sock position in full effect, I don’t do this to get good at Time Trialing I do it to get faster on the mountain bike. I’m hoping I can convince the dudes that run this thing to list me as:
Thom Parsons – Wicked Frickin’ Non-Aero

OK, I’m watching The Tour and Al Trautwig just said he’d like to see a guy on a solo breakaway put his bike into “some SUPER GEAR” and send the peloton into panic. Maybe I should show up to the next Dover TT with my SUPER GEAR…like an 93 X 11, I could borrow one of the guys from the Icelandic World’s Strongest Man Competition to help me get it turning over. Al Trautwig is an ASS.
What else can I say about a TT? I think I summed it up quoting Homer Simpson to Uri at the start “When the race starts, go really REALLY fast”. I don’t know what’s with me and the caps tonight. I went out, passed a few guys, didn’t feel like I was going too, too good until I came up the hills on the latter part of the course in my 53 X 17, not normal. Uri and I rode back to the shop, he in his 53 X 12 or 11 and me in my 39 X 19, practicing the insane spin for my next 100 miler on the SS. That is some exhausting stuff.
The punchline is that by the time I began heading home from IBC Newton I hadn’t eaten for about five hours aside from an Accel Gel before the start…I bonked hard, it was all I could do not to stop at the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts, or the second nearest one three blocks later for a Butternut donut. In that situation you can’t stop, you must drag your whupped ass home and begin the feeding frenzy within sight of your couch.
The big story of the night was really Uri coming in with an 18:43 not knowing the course (it has a couple tricky turns), that beat my old best time by a couple seconds, with some practice he’ll be cracking 18 minutes easy.