Frozen Flatlands Omnium TT - Where the wind comes blowing across the plain

The weather forecast for today's racing was quite fear inspiring.  Temperatures in the 30s, snow showers, and wind.  Fortunately, we only ended up with two out of three.  At this morning's TT it was in the mid 30s and partly sunny, but the winds were 20 to 25 mph.  The first challenge was finding a windbreak in the parking lot to set up the trainer behind so that warming up might actually be possible.  I found a fairly sheltered spot and set up camp.

The next issue was wheel selection.  With the wind howling I wasn't super psyched about trying to control my usual TT setup.  I chickened out and decided to run just a standard low profile alloy rimmed front wheel instead of my usual deep section carbon wheel.  I'm so glad I did!

The course was a nearly flat 12.4 miles (out 6.2, back 6.2) that was a mix of crosswind and headwind on the way out.  The first mile or two of the race (and therefore the last couple miles) featured a nearly dead cross wind in the vicinity of 25 mph.  On the way out, I was forced to get off my aero extensions a couple times in this section and for nearly all of it coming back.  With the deep section front wheel, it would have been really, really scary and not all that fast given the control issues.

At this race, they just start racers in alphabetical order, so I'm the first one off in my class with a nearly 4 minute break ahead of me so there is no one to chase.  As such my race was pretty uneventful, fight hard into the headwind on the way out, try to make the most of the tailwind on the way back.  Oh, and try to stay on the road and out of traffic in the crosswinds!

My time for the race was 31:57, about a minute and a half slower than last year, but it was good enough for 4th in the 40+ masters group so that was a great confidence boost heading into the season.  Next up is this afternoon's 48 mile road race (also in the wind!)