Henry Abel
Fellow tandem racer and NWTandemRacing.com contributor Martha Walsh would like to invite you to the next tandem TT...
Calling All Tandem Teams!
Time trials are a great opportunity for all tandem pairs to refine their skills as a team. They are also the perfect entry point to tandem racing.. If you've never raced your tandem before, or if your partner is apprehensive about the prospect of racing, there's no better chance to try things out than at a time trial. It's just you two against the clock. You won't get dropped, no one will ride too close, no one around you will make a sudden move or take you by surprise. There's no intimidation, no need for prerace jitters, no what ifs. You just go ride your tandem from point A to point B, something you've already got experience doing.. Everybody is competitive enough to race a time trial. And in the end you might discover a few more competitive urges than you knew you had and gain the confidence to try a tandem road race. Or you might discover that a time trial is a great work out. At the very least, you'll go fast and have fun!
This week you can try this out at the Firecracker Time Trial at Peoria (outside Corvallis) on the Fourth of July. It is a beautiful TT course--a flat, smooth road with no corners, only a turnaround at the halfway point. Everybody goes fast on this course on a tandem! It's 40 kilometers (24 miles) so you'll know you've done something when you finish. It's also the OBRA tandem time trial championships, and there are usually several different categories so that you'll be competing against your peers (masters, mixed, etc.).
-Martha
TT: FIRECRACKER TANDEM TT, July 4 - Peoria, OR
The Peoria course (near Corvallis) is a totally flat 40k course. Typically there's a headwind one way - and sometimes both ways! This out and back course has a wide turnaround so it works great for tandems.
http://www.obra.org/flyers/2009/firecracker_crit_tt.html
Posted by henry@webcyclery.com
NWTandemRacing.com