This is a brief story about the time trial. I cannot write a report as I have learned that the time-keeping was not well planned. Times for a large number of riders were in dispute. As a result, there was a lot of controversy with the MTB trophies that were given out being returned in protest. I later found out that the timekeepers were asked to record time and riders' numbers for each LAP on blank pieces of A4!

The Race Course was at Changi Coast Road, just behind the airport. It was about 6.5 km out and the same distance back. It is flat and quite windy. There is plenty of shade from trees. The main obstacles on the course are 3 sets of speed strips, each with about 10 strips spaced 5 feet apart and an inch thick. These strips span the road and you have to over each set twice per lap. Cars going over them will rattle. Imagine going over them on 23mm 120 PSI tires.

Cyclists go out at 30 second intervals. Depending on their category, they can do anything between 1 and 3 laps. Originally the loop was 42km in distance but that was cut short because of the construction that occured at the end of the road. As a result, the terminus of the race was placed at the exit of the Changi Ferry Terminal.

The race starts at 8:30 pm with the roller bladers going out for a 1 lap race. They complete and the cyclists start.

I finish warming up further up along the road and come down to the start-finish line. I find a shady spot where I watch the Sports Cat boys going off. A lot of gear is present today. Skinsuits, Disc Wheels, Aero Bars and Aero Helmets. I am all decked out too. Met Pac IV helmet, Profile Split Second Bars, Etxe-Ondo skinsuit, shoe-covers, CH-AERO wheel covers. The works. Lippy commented that I looked like Michael Rich of Gerolsteiner... Yeah, Gerolsteiner uses Met Helmets as well so that's where the resemblance comes in. Now, if only I had the shaved legs of Rich. Actually I did play around with the idea of buying Veet as recommended by Beef. However, I was too lazy to walk to the pharmacy to get it so its hairy legs this time.

I am sitting on the grass looking at the numbers. Pak comes and sits down beside me as we watch the Sports Cat going off. In the long queue, I notice something strange... Two guys wear the same BLACK NUMBERS of 45. Black Numbers are worn by the Open Cat. It was like the scene from the first Matrix movie where Neo saw two black cats...Deja Vu. What a mess. One of the riders was told about the numbers and he went back to the registration tent to try and have his numbers changed. Well, I don't think he succeeded because number 45 turned up twice in the finishing times leading to some more dispute in the Open Cat rankings later on.

Pain calls the Open Cat to the start-finish. Lippy starts slightly ahead of me. OldMan is at the start-finish taking photos. Sandman is hanging out somewhere in the background watching (his duties as General Manager of SACA takes him to almost every race on the calendar as he has to pack equipment away). Legstrong is counting down to the start-times. Gee, TeamAbsolut seems to have people working at plenty of the races. This time, the only TeamAbsolut racers were me and Lippy. We have more worker-bees than racers this time. Betcha next year, we can hold our own races.

I am on the start line, the last rider in the Open Cat ITT. The bike holder is the President of SACA himself. First time I am starting a local ITT in a standing start. OldMan tries to distract at the start, muttering "Dead batteries!" Classic TeamAbsolut tactic..."If you can't beat 'em, DISTRACT 'em?!!" But why is he doing it on me? "OldMan, its me, Sting!" Must be the helmet and skinsuit - he probably thinks I'm Michael Rich's younger cousin or something....

"10 seconds!" says Legstrong. OldMan keeps muttering something. I push his dataflow to the deepest recesses of my head. I breath in hard a few times, getting ready to fly. I just hope the Prez doesn't let go too early and I fall.

"GO!" I am off. I start in the 52x14. I am a potato-masher this year. To maintain a head of steam, I find that I need to keep the big gear ticking over. I find that my times improve if I grind my way to a steady cadence instead of sprinting away. The entire race I am in my 52x13, the largest gear I have. It helps in floating over the irritating paint strips as well.

I maintain a cadence of 70-73 rpm for the gear. At 72 rpm, AnalyticCycling.com says the speed is just above 40kph. I was impressed. I was aiming for an average of 37 kph. I take all the strips in the first lap on my aerobars.

That was a big mistake. On the second lap, the first time I hit the strips, the right aero bar works loose and swings skyward. Dang. This is going to cost me time. I don't panic. I can still use them for an aero position. I gingerly rest my right arm on the pad, grab the front end and lock my left and right fingers together forming a nice stable platform. All this at 37kph too. Hoo-yeah. It would have been better if the aero-bar had not been loosened at all but there you have it.

Before I knew it, it was into the last lap and I started to give it some stick. Then I was turning the final corner and sprinting for the line. My official time (hmm, can I trust it? My flight deck harness had not been working for a month and so I couldn't time myself) is 55min 40sec. So it is 39.8 kilometres per hour. And I could walk properly after the race!!! So I definitely could have gone faster.

Unfortunately, while the racing was good (we had people like Peter Sharman, Arab and Kale Buonerba (the Airborne Guy) doing speeds of around 43kph) the results took forever. People were left hanging around in a carpark until after 12 noon before some kind of results were announced...only to have them in dispute!

Lippy was fast enough to be awarded fourth and I managed to get into the prize list with 8th. On the other hand, Lippy and I had a look at the results list and we found that Lippy should actually be third and the #5 guy (#45 - Mr Deja Vu) should not be there at all! That means I would have been 7th.

Anyway I am not going to make a big fuss about the medals. I don't care about the medals or ranking in an ITT. I only care about my timing. I am motiviated by improvement and I want to see improvement in my timing. Compared to last year's 34.6kph, I am extremely happy.

Next up, the team time trial!!! TeamAbsolut is in a bit of stasis. I had hoped that this year, Sandman, Fangio, Porky or Holyman might step up to bat in the Team effort. Machoman, Lippy and myself can't run it alone. Well, since Porky has a new piglet in the family, he can't train that much. Holyman has to rest on the 7th day. Sandman and Fangio are now OFFICIALS in SACA. Officials just don't have much time to train. Ha. All that potential untapped. We might have to a little merger with another team.

Speaking of officials in SACA, I was surprised to find some cyclists who blamed Sandman for the timing fiasco of the ITT. They keep saying that he's the only full time employee of SACA and therefore he was supposed to make sure the race ran smoothly. Well I don't know about that. It is true that he is the only full time employee, but I don't think its his job to RUN THE RACE. His is mostly an administrative position. Road races are run by a Race Director and it is the Race Director who does all the planning and execution. On the other hand, I was very happy to see very positive offers of help coming in from Lippy, Kale and others who wanted to help sort out the timings.