22km Individual Time Trial

Once again, a great success that would not have been possible without the help of the many volunteers - o.k., many may be overstating things a bit, but we did have more volunteers out last Friday than the original installment (held last October), and they were absolutely instrumental to ensuring that the event went well.  Special recognition to Suzette for the overall organization; Fiona for providing assistance with registration, back-up timing and results compilation; Jullian for ensuring the riders went off at the prescribed time; Helen, Rachel and Hercules' wife (sorry, I did not get your name) for recording rider numbers after each lap; Axel for numbers collection; and of course, Alexandra and Connor for all their help on pre-registration and the timing table [...and for cheering your dad....you were cheering, weren't you?...].  I also want to give special thanks to the Red Bull guys for the great tent and the energy drinks they provided, as well as the (surprise) prizes that they donated for our top three finishers...

And now, the results....

Friday morning arrived in fine fashion.  Temps at 6:30 were hovering in the low-to-mid 60's, but with clear skies and a light breeze from the south, it was evident to those of us setting up that the day would quickly warm up.  [It was also evident to me after the race that the light breeze would provide some with ample justification for the day's performance - or lack thereof....]  Race format was identical to the previous - 2 laps of the service roads, each at 11.1k; 1-minute start interval between riders...

A strong pre-race registration of more than 30 riders was supplemented by race-day registrations, bringing the combined total to 47 riders (including both of the tandem riders) for all events.  Among the 47 were 21 "repeat offenders", and a whopping 26 new faces [some of whom regularly join the weekend rides, but seems are not able to get out of bed for the weekend races...].  The new faces included 4 riders from the Qatar Junior Team  --  Abdulazziz Al-Sayed, Ahmed Bordar, Mohammed Jodad, and Osama Nowaf  --  who added some spice to the race [...and proved that youth sometimes trumps miles in the legs...], as well as our youngest ever rider  --  10-year old Khalid Sawan [rumor on the street is that other youngsters got wind of Khalid's intended participation and stayed away if fear of getting totally schooled....], and our first ever tandem team  --  the Dynamic Duo of Greg and Sauwanee Bahn [...hmmm...riding together and still married....impressive...]...

After a few last minute preps with the line-up and timing system [yes, my computer once again, but this time with a back-up power supply...]  the race commenced at 9:13 a.m. with the 2 riders in our Mountain Bike category.  As the lead-off rider, Reginald Barichievy had no one to chase for most of his lap, but that made no difference as his pace was strong enough (26:25) to hold off Lester Belarde (27:28) and take top honors in the Mountain Bike division.  (Not content to complete a single lap, Reginald went around for a second lap, but that was unfortunately not recorded on the official clock, although I believe the back-up timing caught it...)...

The Weekend Warrior group was led by 10-year old Khalid (with Richard Pritchett kindly providing rolling safety/support).  Khalid finished the lap in a very respectable time of 34:54...[...very respectable...for two reasons: first, when I was 10-yrs old, I don't think I ever cycled 11k in one go, and second, because the report from our stealth Course Marshall indicates that Khalid was actually pulling Richard through the windy section in front of the shooting complex...I think this may be the origin of the drafting protest against said support rider, but given that Richard did not actually start his "official" ride until ~30 seconds after Khalid finished, we'll let it slide...]   Despite his performance, Khalid was no match for the experience of the rest of the field, and the WW division's top honors went to Ernesto Gabriel (23:12), followed by the Dynamic Duo of Greg and Sauwanee (24:04), with Mark Green (25:43) coming third...

With the single lap formats on the road, the double lap format was led by our lone entrant in the Ladies division, Diane Davis.  With no other competition [...could it have been that, as with Khalid, the competition declined to show in fear of being thoroughly trounced??...] the question of whether Diane would repeat as the Ladies champ was moot.  While she gave it a good try she was not able to top her previous time, finishing instead in 41:03.

Following Diane's start, attention quickly turned to the Open category, where the "big guns" [...maybe it should be, "young guns"...] were waiting for their send-off.  The first 3 Open riders set a blistering pace, overhauling all 7 of the previous riders within their first lap.  Newcomer Jody Sanderson posted the first lap mark to beat at 16:55, and it looked like the Terminator (Martin Liebeck) would have some competition in the absence of Malcolm Geluk.  [For those who don't remember, would like to forget, or were just not there, on the return from Al Khor during a ride last fall - and with the group doing nearly 50 kph - Jody rode away from everyone...]  On his first lap, the Terminator responded, bettering Jody's time by 22 seconds, but this record was short-lived, as Qatari rider, Ahmed Bordar took a further 18 seconds out of the Terminator's lap time to post the fastest  lap of the day - the fastest lap yet - at 16:15.  Amazingly, both Jody and the Terminator negative-splitted their second laps, but their efforts were not enough to overcome a second equal lap by Ahmed, and the young Qatari came out on top of the Open division with a time of 32:30.  The Terminator had to settle for second, but with a much improved time (by 44 seconds) of 33:00, followed by Jody S. in 33:30.

Following the Open, it was on to the "Old Man's" - a.k.a., the Masters - category.  Competition in this category was stiff - and I am not just referring to the old bones and joints....Newcomer Jaco Anderson. used his massive quads to power through the first lap in 17:29.  Ten riders later, this [well rested, and not shoeless today!...] editor (Craig) managed an initial lap split of 17:10, and several riders after that "repeat offender", Bryan Benbow turned in his best ever first lap at 17:25.  The first lap standings would also prove to be the final placings for the Masters group, but it was a nail-biter to the end [albeit, in hindsight] as Craig (34:43) nipped Bryan (34:52) for first, repeating as "Master of the Masters".  Jaco rounded out the top 3, coming in at 35:38.  

So, in all some very good performances....Of the "repeat offenders", nine - that's right, nearly half(!) - improved their times over the previous ITT, with the Most Improved Award going to Murray Thomas, who dropped 1:42 from his previous best.  Other notables improvements came from Lando (dropped 1:32), and Bryan Benbow (dropped 1:07 and emerges as the "New Dark Horse" in the Masters category) [...hey Bryan, just what kind of "juice" is in your juice??...].  Rounding out the "losers" [...really guys, it's good to be a loser in this case...], John T. dropped 52 seconds, the Terminator and Jens both dropped 44 seconds, Richard Priest carved 41 seconds from his previous best, while Thomas R. and Jason K. dropped 13 and 10 seconds, respectively.  

It goes without saying that the remaining "repeat offenders" failed to better their previous time [...o.k. - here's my excuse: it wasn't the wind....I just forgot to bring a water bottle and was parched throughout the whole second lap....].  However, of these, 5  managed a time within 15 seconds of their previous, while the Most Unimproved Award on the day [no offense intended here] goes to Michael Turchi whose time was....well....let's just say that his time difference was higher than the rest [...in analyzing the results, looks like the second lap was a killer...].

So, that's it for the race report....For the next ITT we will seed the riders according to previous best finish times (of either of the 2 events) - meaning that the fastest riders will ride last....could be good, could be bad - depends on the weather/wind - but it should definitely make things interesting.  Also, we are talking about a new "race series" that should add a bit of fun competition...Details right now are a bit secret - the only clue I can give you is that, while there will be no "winner", there will definitely be a "loser"....stay tuned for more....