Testing the waters for the Carnation Time Trial

A friend and went out to Carnation last weekend to ride two of the time-trials that are being held. One's a flat 12 mile course, while the other is a 14.5 hilly course. I don't even have a friggin' time-trial bike so I'm not sure abou these races, but the hilly I might be able to do alright.

As a side-note, just as we got out of the car to unload our bikes, a jacked-up pickup drove by with what looked to be a redneck leaning out of the window, looking at us. Sure enough, as he rode by he yelled "Go back to Seattle, you ...." We couldn't make out the last part, but it was probably the ususal 'faggots!' remark often heard outside of large cities. What an introduction to Carnation!! The funny thing was that we were indeed going back to Seattle, while he's gonna remain in the sticks.

Anyway, the first course we did was more or less flat, and with the wind we only averaged 19 mph but that's not bad for us. The wind was tough though.

But the 2nd course includes Tolt Hill road, which is a 10% grade for one mile! This is probably the nastiest hill I've done, but having done the 22% block at 26th & E. Roy st on Capitol Hill it wasn't all that bad. The downhill is 9% for a mile, with some winding turns. Had to brake quite a lot since the turns were so sharp, but we maxed out at 42 mph!!

Check out the elevation profile for the hilly time-trial: (generated by veloroutes.org)


Yep, that super-steep climb in the beginning is the 10% grade; wow that was fun! Somehow we averaged 18 mph on this course, whic I'm sure is far under what the winning average will be.

Good country riding out in Carnation, but watch out for the country-folk, they're apparently vocal about their dislike of visitors on bikes.