Dean’s 2026 Masters Time Trial Nationals Report – 1st place!

This years Masters Nationals was a 13.7 mile course about an hour west of Milwaukee. Hot humid sunny weather is a staple for this event so I’d done a 2-week heat training block to push the inevitable implosion off as much as I could. I gave an overview of my heat training in an earlier blog here: Hour Record Attempt Equipment and Training. On paper this course just had 470 feet of climbing, which is on par with our local time trials around here. However, the devil is in the details with 2 turnarounds, one coming after the highest speed descent on the course (not cool if you’re heavy!), the final turnaround on top of a hill (better), and two other tight turns both after descents where the narrow road is coned off with cyclists turning in both directions making braking necessary. Weather forecasted a 15mph crosswind from the south, which with exposed cornfields on both sides is the real deal. I was fortunate to ride the course the day before to get to know the pavement and key turns. The map and elevation profile is below. I made the best pacing plan I could given everything this course threw at us.

I started first in my age 50-54 field which had 22 entries. This is the most entries I’d seen at these things as nobody really comes to TT nationals for fun. The downside of starting first is I wouldn’t pass riders or have anybody to chase, but the upside is I could
just focus on my plan. I limited myself to a short warmup to keep core temperature down, stuffed down my last slushy in a final attempt to stay cool, and headed to the starting gate. Following a brief countdown I was off. First few miles were rough bumpy pavement, slightly uphill, and what felt like straight into the wind. Slowest part of the course with a long race ahead. It’s easy to overdo it in this situation as you feel like you’re going so slow. Of course I was going too hard as your perceived effort lies to you this early in a time trial so I was constantly telling myself to ease off. After a minute or so the effort started feeling real and I settled into my pace. I knew at around the 2-mile mark I’d have a break on the descent and needed that break already. The first tight turn followed and I enjoyed coasting extra before grabbing enough brakes to make the turn inside our single lane of orange cones. Right back up a hill, then down the fastest decent to the first turnaround where I recovered again. Turnarounds are tricky especially on narrow country roads like this. Ideally you wait until the last second to brake, then brake hard to a slow enough speed to make the hairpin turn, and finally accelerate back up to speed. I’d practiced my turnarounds the day before. I opted for a strategy where I started coasting much earlier than normal for this turnaround. I’d rather have an extra 10-15 seconds of rest and give up what may be 1 second of time and use that energy on the hills. Right back up to speed and now time to hammer back up the hill I’d just descended knowing I’d coast the descent into the tight coned off turn again. I grabbed enough brakes for a safe line, and I was back on course to the more straightforward 2nd half of the race.

I was breathing heavy enough to know I was over my limit and needed to find room to recover. It was hard now as next 3 miles would to the final turnaround were into the wind and uphill. If I could reach that turnaround it was becoming apparent that we’d
have a cross/tailwind home going mostly downhill. I had to get there though. I compromised and stopped watching power and just used perceived effort to push what I could for a while. There was a 2 step climb to the turnaround and I needed legs for that,
even if I had nothing after. I got there, pushed them both, took the final turn on top of a hill with my heart rate and breathing both skyrocketing, and now it was time to go downhill.

5 miles to the finish, I coasted and sucked as much Wisconsin air as I could on a short descent that couldn’t last long enough. Some gentle twists on the descent were coned off for cyclists going in both directions leaving a pretty narrow lane to carve a turn in aerobars. I wasn’t risking a mishap with the crosswind and deep wheels so I sat up on my basebar to carve safe lines. I started seeing riders coming the other way, and while I knew it was way more than the 30 seconds they started behind me the fastest riders would go last and no way of knowing gaps to them. I was back to pedaling on perceived effort I’d felt I could maybe hold to the finish, knowing I needed some legs to push that final climb. The last 2 miles would be fast and downhill, yet on rough pavement, so I treated that last climb until 2 miles to go as if it was the finish. A minute on the climb felt like an eternity and I left it all out there, and now had to hold onto what I could for about 3 minutes of rough downhill.

I flew over the rough pavement trying to be as soft on the bike as I could as a flat or mechanical is the last thing I needed. My speed was fast and by now I was passing riders from the earlier age group. Final bend and I could see the finish, yet had one
more rider to pass. While I could see room to safely pass him I was unsure how narrow the finish chute was or exactly where the line was so in a split second decided not to risk it. I sat up behind him grabbing brakes the last 20 seconds or so until we both
crossed the line one behind the other. I’d seen crashes in these narrow finish chutes with metal racks on both sides and I’d rather give up a few seconds and not risk it. I was thrilled to be able to stop knowing I’d pushed myself as hard as I could the last 28
minutes. I was unsure how I finished as speed was much slower than I’d expected. Unceremoniously the rest of my age group finished, but it wasn’t until I saw times update on the app where I saw I was still in 1 st place! 2nd place was 20 seconds back and top 6 finishers all within a minute of me.

I enjoyed the podium ceremony as I won a Stars and Stripes jersey. I won this event 12 years ago, but that feels like a different lifetime. I’d come up short my last couple trips, but each loss keeps the fire burning. Time for some fun riding the rest of the summer with no more planned events. I’ll do a bike setup profile once things settle and Stephen takes some pictures.