Race 2 – 2011 Charlotte Motor Speedway Time Trial Series

ByMike Byrd

Originally posted May 13, 2011

May 11th, 2011 was the 2nd race of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Time Trial Series held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.    I met Jasen at his house, loaded up his car with our time trial bikes and headed down to the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  My start time for the time trial was 7:45pm so I had plenty of time to warm up.  I put my Cervelo P3 together, pasted my number on my speedsuit and managed to get about 5 laps on the track before it was closed for the race. 

I was feeling pretty good.  I had been doing some interval training with a buddy on the road and had just finished up two 8 week trainer sessions with Sarah at Cool Breeze Cyclery.  I don’t have a lot of miles on my legs but was feeling strong for a short effort.

I felt like I had a good warm-up as I was able to ride for about an hour before my time trial started.  I rolled up to the line right at 7:45PM.  I knew that the wind had picked up so I decided not to go out too hard.  I didn’t dig too deep right from the start and tried to slowly ramp up my speed.  I felt like I was going well and was able to keep my head clear as I finished my first lap. Usually my mind is starting to play games with me pretty quickly, but tonight everything felt in control. 

I was going well and consistently passing riders in front of me.  I didn’t start suffering until the 4th lap.   I was hurting bad coming down the front stretch and felt like I slowed considerably coming into turn one.  I tried to relax and get everything back under control.  While on the backstretch during lap 5, I was passed by a rider that made me look like I was going backwards.  It’s crazy to see how fast some of the guys are.  I tried to use him as motivation and keep him in sight, but that didn’t last long. 

I was able to get my breathing under control and started my last lap feeling good.  I was passing my friend Martin coming out of turn 2 when I was passed by another rider.  Same story, he made me look like I was going backwards.  He was a good rabbit and I chased him down the backstretch as hard as I could.  I pushed through turn 3 and 4.  When I entered the final stretch to the start/finish line, there was a rider about 75 yards in front of me and he became my target.  I caught him before the start/finish line totally exhausted.  One good thing about the interval training is that I recovered fairly quickly.

I finished 14th overall with a time of 21:10 (28.33 mph) and was 4th in the Cat 3 group.  I’m hoping to improve on my time at the next Charlotte Motor Speedway Time Trial on June 8th, 2011.  My personal track record is 20:28 and I’d like to set a new personal record this season.

The Bike Racer

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