Yesterday I signed up for my first Hill Time Trial Climb. I was contemplating doing the Alpine TT and was further motivated to do it by this weeks CRCA coach, Tara Parsons.

The bike commute to Alpine River Basin was about an hour and a half. This is the second time I’ve biked via River Road. River Road is a much quieter and scenic route to the Nyack, with this comes a more challenging climb to 9W. I was scheduled to start my TT at 9:12am in the Cat 5 group.  I arrived about 20 minutes before my TT start and start times were being delayed 10 minutes due to an overall late start. I hanged out, stretched and watched other racers start their climb. I observed that most racers started their race out of the saddle to gain forward momentum and quickly sat to preserve their legs for the 1.3 mile climb.

When it was my turn I was called to the start line by the announcer. It took me by surprise that the countdown was only 5 seconds, that mistake or lack of experience caused a slight delay in my start because I wasn’t fully clipped in.

After pushing off and being on my way I did not find myself in a comfortable rhythm for the first 2 minutes or so. My HR and breathing was all over the place. On the later part of the climb I was able to find my rhythm and cadence was comfortable and smooth.

I finished with a time of 6 minutes and 34 seconds, far from my sub 6 minute goal time. However I was quite thrilled with today’s race performance being that this was my first TT climb. I am very excited to try the Alpine TT climb again in the fall, next time around I would like to be better familiar with the course and my overall race strategy.

Official Results