Jim Lund Report: Sugar Grove TT

Yesiree. After getting only about 4 hours of sleep and waking late, I left my house and hooked up with Rob Kosman. Together we rode over to registration. I was hoping to do the loop once for additional warm up, but by the time I finished buying a USCF license, and crossed route 47 over to the start/finish line in the industrial park where the start/ finish was, it was just about time for me to go. I figured I could warm up a bit more for the first few miles of the TT since it was 30K. Heading out of the start finish, we faced North/West, into the wind, but quickly rounded left through the advertised “sweeping” 180 degree turn and heading South with a slight downhill ( and through some glass )toward the first right hand turn that takes you out of the industrial park and onto Westbound Wheeler road. I settled in at around 24 mph and held that until the next right turn onto Dugan road, where I headed straight into a lovely West/NorthWest side wind. Here I slowed to about 22 MPH. About three quarters of a mile up the road was a right turn onto Scott road heading me East, with a nice tail wind and I was able to get the pace back up to 25 MPH or so. I held that pace for about a mile, until the left turn on Harter road. I felt fine until I hit the first slight rise in the road and that’s where I started to fall apart, and got passed by my minute man Chris Mosora of Lucas Oil. I slowed down to around 16 MPH and just recovered enough for the left turn onto Lasher road heading West into a lovely headwind. I managed to stay tucked down and keep the speed between 22 and 24 MPH until another rise in the road where I died yet again. This cycle continued for me as I drove West into the headwind. Finally when I got to Swan road and headed South I was able to recover enough to get the pace back up to around 26 mph ( now, thank God for that Northwesterly wind I was cursing while heading into it). From Swan road, I cut the apex of the left turn onto Scott road Eastbound and almost felt like I was going to go down ( not sure why it felt this way, maybe just they way the road dips there) Got it up to around 24 MPH heading East for a very short piece, before turning Right and heading South on Davis road, where again the tail wind helped me get the pace back up to around 26 MPH. A short distance South on Davis to the left turn onto Wheeler road heading me East again, and at this point I was pretty much able to keep that pace ( 26 mph ) almost the rest of the way back down Wheeler, and most of the way back to the finish line. All said and done, I haven’t seen the official result, but I came in around 50 minutes or so. The cycle of getting into a rythym, then dieing, recovering, really hurt my effort, but it was good training and shows me just how much work I need to do. BTW I thought I was humming along quite nicely in the sections with tail winds only to be passed by Bob Burke ( 50+ rider ) near the end, and also found out talking with Cory Hickman after the race, that he was going 36 MPH on Wheeler, where I was going 26 MPH. Very demoralizing. And then of course there’s the ageless Supermench Tom, “BIG T” Doughty, out there for two races, who I heard did the TT in around 40 minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did Cherry Valley first ( twice ) and then hit this race on his way home. I’ll have to call him and ask him. Rob Kosman said he did around the same time as me.

Jim