Yesterdays' TT and do you believe the word or the picture?

Last race til Trento!...the  Geelong CC TT at Paraparap

Yesterday's ~24km TT was once again at Paraparap and was THE coldest race I have ever done...as someone who has a tendency to get overheated while racing, it was the first time I have ever raced a TT in arm warmers and I was seriously considering leaving the leg warmers on. 

The course was a 2 lapper with the start  being directly into a headwind which made cranking up the speed a challenge.  I opted to start in big chain ring, but soon shifted down.  I worked hard and came in as 2nd female, not too far behind a young triathelete chick on a very groovy bike.  I managed to beat the person who crushed me timewise last week...yay!

The sad thing is that I managed to wipe all the data from my Garmin and so have nothing to pour over, no charts to look at, no minute analysing of where I could have gone faster etc etc.  All I know from scrolling through the data on finishing is that my HR was where it should have been for at least a part of the race and that I took 41.07.  

This is a bit slower than last time, which given the start location and the weather is understandable. The weather?..see above and the start?...well, on the previous time I raced the 2 lapper it was located further back from the headwind section and so you could take a fair amount of speed into that  section on both laps rather than this time where you had to generate speed from a standing start on lap 1 into what was a significant headwind..something I found difficult.  Sounds good doesn't it!...shame I haven't got the data to prove the hypothesis.

TT at Trento
This from their website:
" The course starts with a rolling descent between kilometer 3 and 7. Then riders follow the magnificent side of Lake Cavedine to start a 2km climb between km 16 and 18. The rest is more or less flat on wide open roads. "

So the course, which actually appears to start with a 2.5km climb(!) and which is 24.7km  in total apparently, if we believe the above,  has  4 km  downhill and 2km of climb..the rest being "more or less flat"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

??? a spin doctor's version of the truth!  a veritable lesson in how to soften the blow, cos to my eyes on this rough guide  at least 11km of  the course is tilted up!!
12 days and counting.