Fort Custer TT................

It was off to Fort Custer Michigan for a Michigan USAC Series Time Trial, on Sunday August 23, 2009. Tailwind promoted this event. The second last race in their 2009 race series. (In the collage above I took a picture of Mr. Tailwind, Robert Linden. I have mentioned him in previous posts and now there's a face to the name. He is a stand up guy, who's all about the sport.) I had never raced the TT at 'Custer' before so I was really going into this one not knowing what to expect. It was a 13 mile loop of double track, flowing single track and tight downhills and quick climbs. As we drove the 3 hours, the weather was not looking too good, but we lucked out! Once we arrived in Battle Creek there was no rain, just overcast and the temp a bit on the cool side. I actually had the arm and knee warmers on to warm up! My start time was 10:25:30 am. 2 by 2 we were set out in 30 sec. intervals. I stood at the line with an expert man and the count down from 5 took place. Only racing against the clock, you never know where you stand until the end. After a small blunder on the first turn I set into a nice pace. As I came into one of the opening quick climbs, my front end washed out in the sand and sent me off my bike. There's no time for wipe-outs in a TT and I knew my down had to turn quickly into an up. Fixed the gearing, the handlebar and back on the bike and attacking the climb. I had raced a cross country race at Fort Custer and this course was not looking familiar at all. Coming into a technical downhill/uphill/single track/off camber section (hard to describe because the trail sort of went up and down the side of a hill and just when you thought you could let the bike go you were braking....), I was feeling pretty good and then I lost my flow. I just wanted to get through this section clean. It was fun but I couldn't seem to figure it out. (That's why pre-riding a course is so important, especially for a tt where you only have one shot at it. You vs. the clock and one lap, you have to give it your all.) Anyhow, I got through it and picked my pace back up. I passed by where Jay was standing and he gave me my update. "3 seconds in front of 2nd place" is what I heard. At that point I knew I had to get out of the "just riding" mode and give more of a race pace effort. So onto the gas it was. I attacked the course, made some pretty sweet passes and hammered to the finish. Only to find out that Jay had said that I had "30 seconds on 2nd" not "3" like I thought he said. Nonetheless he pushed me and I managed to put another 19 seconds on 2nd. Taking the top of the podium by 49 sec.!! Phew. This was definitely not my best race, but a win is a win no matter how ugly it may have been. Jay and Paiten rode the first half of the course and they were pretty happy with their ride.
Another reason for taking in the western side of Michigan was to visit Bells Brewery. Fellow racers race on the Bells Brewery/Quiring Cycle Team and had told us about the small cafe that Bells has, known as the Eccentric Cafe. First stop was the General Store. We did a bit of shopping ;) and then headed to the Eccentric Cafe. Wouldn't you know it, we ran into Joe Brzuchanski (Bell's/Quiring Cycle) who bought Jay and I a beer and Paiten a soda!! (Super nice of him!! ;p) We had a quick bite to eat (delicious) then headed home. Great day, great fun, great people, great trails and great beer!!

Cheers,

Sue