My first BBCh RACE....Team Time Trial...!!

No heart rate monitor, No cleats, no experience in Time Trial, and just a couple of pace-line rides the week before is all it took to get to the podium finish.
Who >> The Cleated Warriors team.
When >> 21st August 2011 organized by BBCh.
Where >> Budigere to the NH 205 turnoff. ( commonly known in the bike world as Siva's Road)
Why >> Head goes where cycling is involved :-)

In my world of cycling, riding regularly the circuits of RT Nagar and hebbal two years ago, who knew I'd someday join a team and be racing with some pro teams...!! Facebook is a big boon for strategies and co-ordination at-least in the Cleated Warrior zone. Venkat and Opendro had made some serious planning on deciding how the paceline will be maintained. More than 50 comments on that thread alone. Looking great theoretically but how will they pan out in the real world on D-Day. This was the big question. Also how many riders would turn up for the race. Will we have excess or less members when it comes to the registering names on the BBCh records? With some intriguing questions on mind we patiently waited for the big day. I'm very glad that Opendro had the bike rack which was able to take 3 bikes.

 

Never knew Linea Boot space was large enough to accomodate a road bike :-)

Met Opendro at BTM and we left for the next warrior to be picked up, Anke Schuermann. But later got to know that she started for the the venue early and was not to be seen on the way to the start point. Met Venkat (CW leader), Major Srinivas, Sudhir and Deepak Rao whose comments I'd seen only on the Bikeszone forums. Got to see the full disc and also the 3 spoke TT rims on the Cervelo. Mean Machines. Droool.!!! Made it in time for a quick 12 km practice ride and deciding on strengths and weakness of each rider for a position in paceline. Max members were 6 of which only 3 had to cross the finish line. Now Venkat Nalla Sudhir and I had the chance of opting for the ITT ( Individual Time trial). The warrior to make it to ITT was Sudhir and he did try real hard but there were a few other strong riders. We were the penultimate team to start with 6 riders. Initial 5 kms was a steady tempo then we picked up pace and soon dropped 2 riders. A couple of more kms and we had another rider fallback. Shouted out only 3 riders in... Check..!!

 At the start line ... !!!

This was pretty much the trio which stuck together for almost 12 kms...!!

The train was lead by Venkat who pulled strong for almost 70% of the route. He was tailed closely by Opendro whom I was drafting just a couple of inches away. Overtook whenever there was a climb to help Venkat recover. Fell back to recover on flat stretches and downhill. Opendro did a wonderful Job of staying close as we did not have a leverage to lose a rider. The last sprint for 100 -150 mts was exciting and all that was on my mind was the 2009 sprint of  Mark Cavendish in Tour de France. Head down and the bike bobbing left and right with maximum force on pedals, felt great to finish first, followed by Opendro and a neat finish with Venkat crossing the finishline. My main objective this race was to ride a proper paceline with the team so podium finish or not, I was happy with the team performance. Mission Accomplished. But a podium finish was just as good as a cherry topping on an ice-cream. Finishing with the pro riders for a close second is indeed an incredulous acheivement by the CW team overall. I'm ecstatic and would treat myself 2 plates of spicy masala puri to celebrate .. YAY..!! Some victory snaps follow :-)