Reality Check

I raced the southern California and Nevada district TT Championships on Saturday. I didn't have a great month leading up to it, but the year so far has been good. The air was still more or less. The road was decent. I flatted my rear disc on a goat head about 15 minutes before my start which rattled me a bit, but mostly I just didn't have the legs. I did the 23.5 mile course in just a few seconds under an hour, but only managed to finish 13th out of 15. I would have had to ride at 24.3 mph to be in the top ten, and 26mph to win. I don't think the 26 mph will ever happen. I've never ridden a tt much above 24 mph in my life so it looks like I'm condemned to back marker status. It also looks like SoCal is harder than NorCal as I've had more than one top ten in NorCal but was not even close to top ten in this event. The one consolation was that I was not DFL. For my efforts I was rewarded with cramps and tenderness that lasted most of the day. I sometimes wonder why I put so much time and effort into this for such paltry results