Junior Road Nationals - Day 2 - The Race of Truth

June 23, 2011

So today was the Time Trial.  The "race of truth."  Just you against the clock.  For the 13-14 year old boys, it would be 10km long, so something like 15 minutes of all out effort.  Jake had never done a time trial and didn't have a time trial specific bike.  So why not do your first at Nationals.  We got some "clip on" aero bars to attach to his regular road bike and borrowed some carbon road wheels from Contes. We also got him a TT helmet from Contes.  But well over half the field would be on full-blown time trial bikes, many many with carbon rear disk wheels.

Jake's group would be the last of the day so his starting time wasn't until 5:06:30pm.  So, we had a lot of time to kill. Jake watched a lot of cartoons while I did some work.

There was some serious rain at lunch, but it was supposed to clear up.  However, when we went up to Lake Strom Thurmond at 3pm to get set up, it was raining.  Thank goodness I borrowed the tent from Ken and Jean Woodrow.  We ("I") set up the tent and got Jake's bike in the trainer for warm up.

Tanner Browne and his dad met us and set up Tanner's trainer under the tent as well.  Jake got a good warm up (with some nagging from me).    

Jake made his way to the "shoot" with plenty of time.  There they do the "roll out" where they make sure his gearing is legal under the junior rules.  The boys would be going off at 30 second intervals.  The boy that won the road race yesterday was starting 30 seconds behind Jake.  We talked about how he might catch Jake and if he did he should try to use him as a rabbit.

Jake was nervous but focused. (Note the circa 2001 Coppi skin suit from David Woffel). He got into the start house and ready.

 

Then he's gone, and I have to wait.  Sure enough the boy who won the RR yesterday came in before Jake, but I knew that Jake would be soon after.  Sorry for the silly mumbling of encouragement.

 

The announcer said "Jake Thompson from Squadra Coppi.  I've always liked that team name."  He said Jake's time was 15min and 26 seconds.  I knew the boy who came in before was in the 14:30 range, but we didn't know how others would do.  So, Jake spun around to clear his legs while I packed up the car.  Tanner went later and so did Stuart W and Andy Flemming (from Northern Virginia also).  Here's Jake talking with Stuart (who did well in the RR but crashed in the sprint at the end). 

A couple of observations.  Some of these kids are freaks.  This is the kid who won yesterday, are these the thighs of a 14 year old?   The winner did a 13:30 time, which equates to 27mph average.  Jake did 24mph, which is pretty damn good.

From talking to other people we found out that Jake had beaten Tanner, Andy, and Stuart, so that was a bit of redemption from yesterday, where Stuart and Andy finished better than Jake.  Tanner had a good ride as well, just 12 seconds slower than Jake.  These are all boys that are strong and would win their local races in most places.  But there are boys here who are on sponsored elite development teams at the age of 14.  That's just totally different.

We didn't see the final results until after dinner.  Jake did 15:26, Tanner 15:38.  Jake was 35th out of 71 and Tanner 37th.  I think Jake felt better about this effort.  It confirmed that he is pretty good and has some raw strength.

Tommorrow morning is the final race, the criterium, which has a lot of people pretty nervous.  We'll see how it goes.  From the start we assumed it would be Jake's weakest event, so no expectations. 

Comments

[lorent]

Lake Strom Thurmond? LOL

[Grandpa Tommy]

I am so proud of Jake.

I only wish that I could have been there.

[Lee Anne]

great job!! so much fun and a great experience for a kid to have and remember forever!