Ada Time Trial Results 8-30-2021 and Personal Bests for 2021

What a spectacular ending to our season! Near perfect weather, great performances, and warm camaraderie highlighted our night. I even posted my personal best time of the year, while on a steel friction shifting ride that was bulky at times. Magic was in the air!

We had many rumors of record setting performance attempts, but Jill Martinek's surprise entry into the Burton category rocked the world! And to everyone's surprise, she even beat her best time on her time trial bike by 19 seconds with a 41:42, beating Patti Bills best time of 45:02 set in 2019. Not to be overshadowed - but Heather Wiersma also broke the Burton record with her 42:44 performance. Congrats to both women on fine seasons and great performances on our final night.

Ralph Buckingham continued his quest to make the Men's record his own, but even with an incredible 29+ mph performance, his time of 31:14 was 47 seconds off in breaking the record. Ralph's account of the attempt indicated he was right on track at the halfway point, but just "ran out of gas" about 4 miles from the end. I had exactly the same thing happen to me. I'm not sure if Ralph was a victim of recent competition, but a national level win in an ironman competition was likely a contributing factor. Ah - there's always next year.

 What I most loved about the last night is the variety of rides that came out for a night of fun. We had not one, but two tandems! Jake DeVoogd had never ridden a tandem before, but he got schooled by Captain Troy. For those of you that have never ridden a tandem, the speed on the flat is pretty incredible, but the turn-around is the tricky part. Negotiate that wide radius turn correctly and you're golden. Do it wrong and you could be eating dirt. Luckily, both riders arrived back with pearly white teeth. John Crankshaw was able to complete his cyclocross ride that he started a month before - no blown tire this time! Mike Burden is still tweaking the gears on his fixie, now with a 42 x 15 instead of the 39 x 15. His cadence dropped from 103 to more humanly 95, and although his times are about the same, it likely feels more natural for him.

Finally, I have to thank everyone for the kind words and very thoughtful gifts given to me. I run these time trials out of love for the sport and the event, and I expect nothing in return. This was my 40th year riding the time trials, and you all made it very special under some very trying circumstances. I hope to see every one of you next year!

Dave Durkee - Time Trials Coordinator - Rapid Wheelmen Bicycle Club