I don't know if I will ever figure out exactly who “they” are, but I do know that they will tell you that when it comes down to it, it's really about the size of the engine. You can't buy speed.....

After the first stage of the FSR on Saturday, I was in 11^th place. By far my best finish in the three years I've raced there. I've never had a high placing before, so my TT times really haven't been that important. Now that I had managed a high placing in the first stage the time trial was important and I suddenly wished I had been working on my TT ability. I guess the good news is I knocked 29 seconds off of last year's time. I wouldn't say I was faster, since “fast” and “time trial” don't describe me at all, but you could say I was 29 seconds less slow than the year before. Thanks to my less than stellar effort I dropped from 11^th to 44^th overall.

Driving back to Fayetteville for stage two on Sunday morning I couldn't help but think about my TT and what I could do to improve. The Barenaked Ladies song “If I had $1,000,000” came on the radio and that got me to thinking. My TT equipment consists of my road bike and some clip on aero bars. Certainly I could buy some upgrades and improve my TT time, so I did some research.....

I found some estimated time savings online when using TT equipment. Most of them were for 40k, the Fayetteville TT was roughly 10k, so I made the conversion. Since I had a million dollars to spend, I would buy arguably the best equipment, so I calculated based on the best possible time savings.

Cervelo P4 TT frame      $4800      30 sec.

3T Ventus Aerobars       $750         60 sec. (more savings due to body position vs. road bars)

Zipp Wheels                    $3000       45 sec. (1080 front, Sub 9 rear)

Giro TT Helmet               $150           8 sec.

Team Skin Suit               $102           8 sec.

Totals                              $8802          151 sec. (roughly 2 ½ minutes)

So looking back at my performance this weekend, maybe I can't buy speed, but I might be able to buy 2 ½ minutes on the TT! So what would my $8802 and 151 seconds do to my overall standings at the end of the weekend. Stage 1 had me at 11^th. After the TT I was 44^th. Stage 2 I finished 28^th with a final ranking of 27^th overall. A two minutes and thirty second savings would have improve my position to 24^th overall!

I do plan on eventually buying some TT equipment, but at almost $9000, my list breaks down to about $58 per second. I think I will be a bit more frugal about my upgrades. Body position is key as 75% or more of the wind resistance comes from your body. A wheel cover is a lot less expensive than a Zipp rear disc and can give you similar time savings. There are plenty other ways to save money and improve your time trailing ability, just ask some of our more experienced club members and I'm sure they can point you in the right direction.

Looking at the fact that it would only have moved me up 3 positions in the overall, I think “they” might be right......it is more about the engine. For now I guess I will save my money and spend my time and energy on improving my engine.