The  OCC Weather Control System was hardened against a variety of brute force attacks (sorry Wayne) and held up admirably today.   And Mother Nature was held at bay.   

The conditions at start time:

71 degrees

< 3 mph puffs

high humidity

Roads 90% dry

Course Speed Rating (out of 10):  9

Five TTers had the faith and came out to challenge themselves.  The Fastest Time was unsurprisingly set by Tiago Barreira.  Our timing sky drone had Tiago at 10:50 at the 5 mile mark !   He was going for a PR.  Ken Toscano claims that Tiago was glowing from the air friction as he blasted by.  Tiago has to settle for a phenomenal time of 22:26 (26.74 mph).   Ben Rabin came to the line feeling it wasn't going to be a good night.  He had a short warm-up and had some last second bike tire pumping to do.  Well, he apparently is another that warms up like a microwave,  he crushed the course in a time of 23:58 (25.04 mph). His fastest time in 5 years!  Ken Toscano somehow managed to squeeze out another PR with an impressive time of 25:26 (23.59 mph) in the RoadAero category. Mariana Rinaldo scorched the course in setting the FWT and PR of 27:14 (22.03 mph). A nice way to end her TTs on the OCC course this year. She's off to training camp with her new collegiate team.  Good luck Mariana! 

Men's Road Race -  Great finish!     Pogacar tried to valiently to break apart the small group on the final climb to Mikuni Pass.  I felt he was working with his TdF team mate Brandon McNulty - the young American who helped him on the climbs in the TdF.   Even though the group of contenders coalesced for a few minutes, damage had been done.  How impressive it was to see McNulty take off with 15 miles to go.  Only the ever grimacing Carapaz could stay with him.  Unfortunately , he ran out of gas and got swept up by the small chasing group of Pogacar, VanAert, Woods, Gaudu, Uran and Yates.   But, even then, he had enough fight left in him to initiate the sprint for 2nd place.  It didn't pan out, but, how exciting.  VanAert, Mr All Rounder, would not be denied, even by Pogacar at the line.

Women's Road Race -   Holy cow!   How does the whole peloton lose track of the cyclist that had not come back from the break away.  Supposedly,  the 2nd place finisher, van Vlouten,  thought she had won the race ?      Perhaps the celebrating female cyclist laying on the ground past the finish line would be a clue of her 2nd place finish.    The winner, Austrian Kiesenhofer, is quite the story.  The only member of the Austrian team....  defeated the loaded  Dutch team ,...    unaffiliated with any pro Team since 2017 and pulled off one of the greatest upset in women Olympic history (according to Bob Roll).   

These races certainly were a nice way to wean me off of my TdF addiction.  

Brian

TT Directeur