We wrapped up our winter TTT season tonight in Watopia with one lap of the Waisted 8 route for a total of 18 miles. The core team of Carson, Melissa, Dusty, Shawn and I welcomed newcomer Tim Watkins on his first-ever TTT effort.

We lined up at 6:20 PM and started out at our usual 3.6 W/kg pace. Tim knew that this pace would be challenging for him, but he was eager to give it his best shot. We assigned him 30-second pulls, while the rest of us went with our typical one minute pulls to start. The course is quite flat, with the only noteworthy climb being an ascent of the Jarvis KOM early in the ride. We stayed together and maintained a tight formation through the initial flat section, and then attacked the climb. Tim made it up and over the top with the rest of the group, but he was gassed at that point, and asked the rest of us to go on without him.

The remaining group of five pushed on through the remaining flat sections, which was quite nice after the hilly courses we've had over the past few weeks. Nobody sang tonight, having learned their lessons last week. Nevertheless, I ramped up the pace to 3.8 at the halfway point, and then again to 4.0 with 5K to go. There seemed to be some grumbling about that, but everyone answered the bell, and even ramped it up further on the final run-in to the finish. We ended up finishing in a tight group of five with a time of 45:18, which put us near the bottom of our division (105th of 116 teams), but I think we had more fun than any of the other teams, which is what it's all about.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this winter's time trial series. It was a great experience riding with all of you -- riding in a group to support a team really made me push myself a lot harder than I would have in my solo efforts. Hope to see you all back out on the road soon!