Dismal Dash TT Race Report

Ouch. 40 degrees and a cold driving rain the whole time. 3 hours in the car each way- good times. Got their early enough, and had the “racer’s delight” aka using cold, wet port-o-john. Race had electronic timing, so attach the timing chip to the bike; then on the trainer. Set-up next to Mike Libby, the other CRC Masters TT racer which was nice. Got about 35 minutes warm up underneath the overhang of the failed supermarket whose parking lot the race uses. Rolled out to the start, and of course Roger and Rob Garwood are my 1 and 2 minute men. $&$&! I am changing my last name to Zabriski.

Went out strong (I prefer that to the “negative split” approach) , and held them off for a while and was blowing past people as well. Drilled a pothole hidden by the standing water, my speed and the driving rain. Bars rolled 30 degrees down, so I let off the gas and oh so carefully yanked them back up. Plus I lost my fancy aero bottle (drove out for it later). At the turn, I blew through it a bit, so overall I left 15-20 seconds on the course. Return trip was misery. A bit of a head wind picked up and was crushing people spirits, as was the steady cold rain. I think I rolled past most of the riders ahead of me in the Masters, and almost all the womens field; nobody looked like they were having fun. With 3/4 of the TT left, neither was I- my neck was killing me, and holding my low and fast TT position was getting harder.

The fact that this was over 25 miles, and not the standard 24 miles seems to add to the dismal nature of the Dismal Dash. Saw the finish and drove for it the best I could. Afterwards it took nearly 20 minutes to change due to the cold and the wet clothes, and another 30 to fetch my stupid aero bottle. But at least the results were up- 5th! My best Dismal Dash result ever. By the time I was back to the car, I was already thinking of the Tour de Canal TT; I must be a special kind of dumb.