by David Stanton
I recently competed at the Masters Road Nationals, held in Ogden, Utah.
My event, the Individual Time Trial, featured State Champions, and other highly ranked athletes from all over the country, especially, it seemed, from Colorado.
The TT events were held on a very hilly course on Antelope Island, which is actually in the middle of Great Salt Lake, and is at 4600 ft of elevation. There is a fairly steep, 1 mile climb right out of the gate, which causes an unsuspecting racer to blow up early, if they don’t pace themselves. This climb is repeated at the end of the 34 K race.
My 60-64 field turned out to be the hottest contested of the day, as 2nd and 7th were separated by only 22 seconds. Three racers were within 1.5 seconds for the final podium spot, and, unfortunately, I got the short end of the stick this time, just missing a medal by that scant 1.5 second margin.
I did improve my time by nearly a minute from last year, but, of course, there’s a lot of ways you can find two seconds! I think I was lulled into a false sense of security also, as I started 8th from the end, passed 5 racers, and had nobody close behind-thought I was doing better than I actually was.
Definitely learned some more valuable lessons, which I hope to take into next year’s event.
As always, it was an honor to represent our fine club!