I’ve decided that warming up on a BIKE for a time trial is somewhat over-rated. Instead, I recommend the following technique which I had the chance to test out today:

Roll up to the starting officials about 12 minutes before your start.

Casually pass your bike to the officials for the formality of bike weight check and position check.

Receive the frightening news that your bike’s handlebars are 1cm too long.

It’s important to bear in mind:
a) At 6′3″ I’m tall for a cyclist. Rules are generally bent to accomodate non-Pro-Tour-cyclist-who-aren’t-5-foot-nothin’. (SIX FOOT THREE! I’m all man, baby!)
b) My bike hasn’t changed it’s position in years. This bike has passed the bike check at Tour of GA and Tour of CA x 2, among other races. Suddenly it’s way off.
c) Additionally, at this point, there are four team directors giving the officials an earful, because their riders are breaking the same rule.

So now there’s about 9 minutes until my start. From then until 2.5 minutes to go, the friendly folks at MAVIC swapped my stem for one 1cm shorter that they fortuitously had on hand. My heart rate is skipping along around 165bpm, and thankfully got to slow a bit in the hundred twenty seconds until my start. Yikes.

Ummm yeah. As jealous as I am of Zabriskie’s TT saddle, please know that I’m not actually writing about it in my blog. I’m apparently experiencing blog uploading issues, so these last two posts have been tests.

In other news, the San Dimas Stage Race serves as a great tune up for the NRC opener and domestic season kick off that is Redlands. Moreover, it gets our lungs in tune with racing the ‘burbs of LA where our greatest foe is named SMOG. Whereas Jeremy, Tom, and Morgan found themselves in the top 15 after stage one, I had a less than spectacular hill climb - but that’s just room for improvement and redemption which I found in stage two. I was simply trying to represent the patriotic red and black colors of BISSELL and put pressure on the race leaders by putting myself in the breakaway. Yet in doing so I collected enough KOM points to clinch the jersey for the entire tour. Coincidentally, after I broke away from my two breakaway companions with three laps to go, I also swallowed up a handful of sprint points and put myself in the green sprinter’s jersey as well! Unfortunately, at the end of the tour, a tie in sprint points is decided by who is higher on general classification, so I had to concede the green threads. Alas, I can only wear one jersey at a time, so I’m perfectly content with just the KOM poke-a-dots.

(For clarification, if you happen to see the picture of the jersey winners on the podium, my askew stance is due to the small top step of the podium. That, and I’m tall.)

So with a handful of guys on Bissell up front on GC and a leader’s jersey secured, we can call San Dimas a success. We’ve blown the rust off the legs, sufficiently clogged our lungs with smog, and have Redlands close on the horizon. Let the season begin.