2019 Cruzbike Summer Time Trial Challenge

[ElyDave]

6th place on my own. What was the cost of that second missed week when I just had too much to do?

The fight for 3rd looks wide open though. Too much for me to do to gain 5th I think, weather looks crappy all week here. Just resurrected the turbo trainer for this evening with thunder crashing outside

 

[LarryOz]

Cruzbike Summer 2019 TT Challenge week #15 "FINAL" results

Great finishing week with 24 riders participating - Thanks everyone for giving it your all!
4 months is a long time to do something hard every week.
Some Stats from week #15:
24 riders participated this week with an amazing 15 of them setting PBs
Congrats to Chris Stancliff who took this week's top honors with a 91 second decrease in his PB from 36:30 down to 34:59.
It came down to the wire with the points race too.
1st place from week #14: Dave Zinke set a new PB by an amazing 40 seconds from 30:26 down to 29:46 - Wow!
Then 2nd place from week #14 Andrew Thompson set a new PB by a more amazing 42 seconds from 39:28 down to 38:46.
But Andrew was 3.5 points behind Dave and only picked up 1 point more than him for this final week - so Dave Zinkeis our 2019 Cruzbike Summer TT Champion!!
Congratulation Dave!! - An outstanding job of constant and steady improvement of the course of this challenge. Dave set 12 PBs in 15 weeks! His final goal was to beat 30 minutes on his Vendetta and he accomplished that great feat!
A hard fought 2nd place goes to Andrew. He set 11 PBs in 15 weeks and rode his Softrider. His goal was to break 39 minutes and he did it wonderfully.
Dave and Andrew were also the only 2 riders to turn in 15 consecutive weeks of rides. They finished miles ahead of 3rd place.
And no small fight for the final (3rd) spot on the podium: Dean Hall moved up to 3rd place with an incredible ride week #14, but could not ride this final week. Alvin was in 5th place 3 points behind Larry who was in 4th place. Alvin missed his PB by 19 secs and Larry missed his by 22 secs (see my video below). As Alvin's luck would have it, 2 other riders finished 20 & 21 seconds off their PBs. This gave Alvin the 3 points he needed to catch Larry. Amazing.
So... Larry and Alvin share the 3rd spot!!

Thanks to Cruzbike for sponsoring this challenge and providing the winners Jersery and also providing free event t-shirts to anyone with more than 15 points.
Thanks to all you who participated - You all made it extra fun for me, getting a chance to make new friends.
Thanks to Alvin Maxwell in Washington, NC who gave me the base idea for our TT challenge. Including himself, many of the participants rode his course in a live TT event each Thursday night (They have been doing this challenge for years).
He also included my times in his event, and I went down there last Thursday to compete in his final TT.
If anyone is interested, here is a link to my video of this TT:

I also video'd my final TT on my "course" here in Hendersonville this past Sunday. Watch it and see something rather "unexpected" happen around mile 11.5 of my 12 miles.
week #15 of Cruzbike TT -

Thanks again to everyone who competed - and Congratulations again to Dave Zinke!!
Rest up for next year - hopefully this can be a yearly Cruzbike Challenge and we can get even more people involved.
--
Larry

 

[3WHELZ]

Thank you Larry for managing the Challenge. I imagine that it was no simple task "herding the cats" in addition to your overseas travels. Again, excellent work and thank you once again!!

 

[McWheels]

Hear hear! Thanks Larry. I've added a lot of miles to the commuter this last 4 months. Probably got a bit fitter too.

That said, competing against oneself is the worst kind of private hell. I'm now facing off against a younger, stronger and probably more determined me every week

 

[Bill Wightman]

Sorry about the chain drop Larry. Wonder if that happens more to rear wheel drive recumbents with all the chain management they have? This 12-mile TT series has significantly improved my blood markers and blood pressure. I won't be riding easy between weekend rides anymore but have already started incorporating multiple ~1 minute HIIT legs in my night rides with breather slow downs at traffic corners. Improving top end speed is very difficult. Like a brick wall. Cruising speed at same heart rate seems somehow easier to improve. Chopping off my head and placing it out of the wind somewhere would help with speed tremendously but I have not figured out the reassembly logistics.

Last night Houston police (very friendly) stopped me for rolling through some stop signs at 1:00 in the morning. There are virtually no cars out at that time. We had a good discussion and I promised I would be safe but could not promise to be perfect. He admitted he stopped me because he was bored out of his gourd with his late shift.

Thanks again for all the emails and spreadsheet work, and look forward to next TT opportunity.

 

[ElyDave]

I never had a chain drop on my rear wheel drive recumbents, other than when I managed to screw up the trim on the front mech.

Had a chain incident today though on an audax, in the wilds of Essex in the east of the UK. Very poor roads, bumpy and potholed, I hit a drain cover hard enought that the chain flap threw it from the middle to small ring.

I must admit on Larry's video I was expecting a deer, or perhaps Godzilla to jump out.

 

[RojoRacing]

Larry you let the blood get to your head when that chain dropped. You remounted and swerved left as cars were trying to safely pass you on a straight section of road then as they were waiting behind the other cyclists in a blind corner as we wish more cars would practice you set a bad example by passing them in that same blind corner. I normally don't bust riders balls for something like this but when you get cars actually doing what we wish more would do and a rider blatantly sets a bad example right in front of them it weakens our stance as a cycling community.

 

[Bill K]

@LarryOz,
Try this the next time you drop the chain (or try this on purpose on the trainer):
Pedal at low cadence (60 or so) and pedal very lightly and hit the shift button to shift into the small chainring.
The derailleur should move inboard enough to pull the chain back on.
Works great for me on the V20 with QRings, so it should work for you too!

 

[benphyr]

Larry you let the blood get to your head when that chain dropped. You remounted and swerved left as cars were trying to safely pass you on a straight section of road then as they were waiting behind the other cyclists in a blind corner as we wish more cars would practice you set a bad example by passing them in that same blind corner. I normally don't bust riders balls for something like this but when you get cars actually doing what we wish more would do and a rider blatantly sets a bad example right in front of them it weakens our stance as a cycling community.

I have to agree with Rojo and support the ongoing striving towards cyclists hold the higher ground and being above reproach. (With a footnote that this seems out of character for @LarryOz based on reading many posts filled with level headedness, consideration, kindness, etc. but we are none of us perfect.)

I echo the thanks to Larry for all the hard work on the TT. Even without participating I feel like I participated and know that I rode harder, faster, farther even with only reading about it.

...Last night Houston police (very friendly) stopped me for rolling through some stop signs at 1:00 in the morning. There are virtually no cars out at that time. We had a good discussion and I promised I would be safe but could not promise to be perfect...

I realize that I have been running late to work and justifying to myself taking liberties with road safety regulations. I too am appropriately chastised. Thank you Jason for clearly identifying those flaws so easy to ignore in ourselves - though I can't say I have the speed to pass many non-stopped cars. I might be a little slower than Larry.

 

[GetBent]

Too bad I did not know about this until it was over. That is something I would like to try. Of course, I will be a little embarrassed at people checking out my lame times.

I have already scoped out a potential route, just in case this is run again.

 

[benphyr]

Too bad I did not know about this until it was over. That is something I would like to try. Of course, I will be a little embarrassed at people checking out my lame times.

I have already scoped out a potential route, just in case this is run again.

@GetBent Welcome - I hope to be involved next time too.
Keep your eyes out on this forum because Larry has already indicated plans for future Time Trials (TT). Don't worry about your times - it is all about improvement. Some of the riders last time had absolutely no experience with any kind of racing and longest ride being the first TT ride! You will be in good company. It is actually harder for those who are used to racing to improve their times so don't worry about your experience or lack thereof - it may work out in your favour. The most important factor this time was consistency. The top points went to those who rode the most often.

 

[RojoRacing]

If anyone wants to give some online team time trials a go over on zwift Trplay and myself are part of a few teams that way it's set up the more people that join the more teams get created so come over and join us if you still need a TT fix to get you through the week.

 

[NeaL]

Of course, I will be a little embarrassed at people checking out my lame times.

If you’re not in the lead, no one else cares about your times more than you do. Well, maybe the person who is next slower after you, but they’re behind you anyway.

And everyone is faster than the chumps who are just sitting on the couch.