when a plan comes together

I've been following the same script for the past few weeks at the Leroy TT. I hold off on the outbound leg, then try to punch it over the last two miles. Tonight, I did exactly that, but probably left a handful of seconds out on the road.

In keeping with the theme of holding back on the outbound leg, I didn't go all out at the start. I basically cut the power output in half from my normal sprint start. In fact, it felt pretty anemic. I probably lost a handful of seconds there. Normally I punch it hard and I'm up to speed by the time I get 100 meters into it. Tonight, I wasn't really up to speed for a couple hundred meters.

I held off all the way through the corner. I planned on 320 Watts, and ended up averaging 305 Watts/22.8 mph. The slow start actually hurt my average power and speed quite a bit. If I omit the slow part, I was basically on target.

As I turned onto the hill, a guy in a van backed out in front of me. In time trial time, it felt like he was blocking the road for 10 minutes, but it probably only cost me a couple seconds.

I rode an even pace up the hill. I didn't even sprint over the top like I usually do. I made the turn around, then took my time getting up to speed before the descent. I felt pretty fresh on the downhill, and I managed to kick it pretty hard over the last two miles and averaged 348 Watts/23 mph.

But even after all that, I ended up averaging the exact same time as last week. I felt like I had a lot left in the tank. I can probably start pushing from three miles out.