Tour of Ephrata Stage 2 Report
Stage 2 of the Tour of Ephrata is the Pain Mountain Time Trial. Running the Tour as a true stage race had an interesting effect on the field. In previous years many riders avoided this TT and registered only for the road race and criterium. This year everyone rode the TT making for many first timers!
Calling this stage a time trial maybe a bit of a stretch but the “Pain” in the name is VERY well deserved. The course is only 8.3 miles. The first 7 miles or so belies the real pain to come. Most of the these first miles are flat with some power “rollers” not unusual for a country road TT. This year there was, however, an added bonus before the pain, of a 20 mph head wind on some sections.
But it is the final mile or so that changes this TT into really a hill climb. The average grade is somewhere in the 8% neighborhood but 2 sections are about 15% plus. Most riders consider 39/25 absolute minimum with a 27 or 29 not uncommon. The other perennial debate is road bike (with clip on bars) vs TT bike.
This year I rode my knew Felt B2 TT for the first time. Previous 2 years I used my Moser road bike (last year with compact cranks). I am not a climber, thus I am going to lose time on the climb so I try to make as much time on the TT section and do the best I can on the climb. I climbed well from a position perspective on my TT bike. I probably could have used compact cranks to my advantage since I seldom used the top gear.
My time was 29’31” this year (25th place), off from last year’s time of 27’57”. Looking at other finishers, most were slower than previous year.
Overall, I am reasonably pleased with my time. Next weeks 40k flatter TT will be much more of a true TT test for me.
Posted: April 30th, 2007 under Bicycle Racing.
Tags: cycling, racing, time_trial