Peter Teeuwan Memorial Time Trial Race Report

My seventh race of 2014 was the Peter Teeuwan Memorial Time Trial, held in Chesapeake, VA, on a flat 21.4 mile out-and-back course, on Sunday, August 10. The weather was warm and humid at my 8:27:00 a.m. start time: temperature was 73 degrees, humidity was 77 percent, and the wind was ENE at 7 mph.

This was a new course that overlapped the Conquer the Canal course that I raced back at the start of season. The promoter had extended the course by 2.2 miles at the start, before reaching the Conquer the Canal start line, then extended the course another 2 miles past the Conquer the Canal turn-around point to the very edge of the Virginia-North Carolina border.

I finished a quick 20 minute warmup and headed to the start line expecting to see two of my local rivals who had signed up for this race at the last minute. They never showed up. My only competition was a novice rider, without aero gear, who traveled to the race from North Carolina.

To take advantage of the tailwind outbound, I immediately ramped up my pace to over 24 mph. I hit the turnaround point in 0:26:41 (24.05 mph average). Then, I struggled with the headwind on the inbound leg, which I completed in 0:29:17 (21.92 mph average). My official finishing time was 0:55:58 (22.94 mph average), sufficient for my fourth victory of the season. The guy from North Carolina finished 10 minutes behind me in an hour and five minutes.

Race Replay: Peter Teeuwan Memorial Time Trial

This promoter is my least favorite. This day, all of her faults were on display. Other promoters email a list of start times for every competitor at least 24 hours before the race. Not this promoter. She sent out an email with only the start time for the first racer in each category. Registration opened less than 45 minutes before the start time of the first rider, an inadequate amount of time for a proper warmup. The process of registering was plagued by inexperienced and inefficient staff members. The course was not properly marked nor were road guards in position to guide riders, which creates an unsafe event. Many riders complained to the promoter about this, but I overheard one of her staff members privately dismissing their complaints as ungrateful.

As for prizes, the finishing times of the two of us in my age group were combined with the next younger age group, despite no mention of this in the official race flyer. There was no way that a “podium finisher” from my age group was going to see a prize of any kind against the times of guys 10 years younger. In fact, the merchandise prizes turned out to be gift certificates from a local bike shop that I would have had no interest in redeeming. Finally, other promoters post the official race results to the national ranking website within 24 hours, along with an email to every registered competitor. At best, this promoter will take a week to complete this task.

This was the fourth time this season that I have driven over eight hours round trip to race at the other end of the state. I have all but made up my mind to ignore this promoter’s events next season, as well as two other events in that area requiring a similar driving commitment. Then, there is the issue of competition. I have had competition in only one of those four races this season, and he came from out-of-state. Nor is there anyone moving up into my age group next season to challenge me. I have races with competitive fields that are within two hours driving time that I will focus on next season, along with the National Senior Games in Minneapolis/St. Paul in July.