After a few days of riding in the desert we have concluded that everything is actually bigger in the west. The roads are wider, the terrain is more open and spread out, the wind can be nonstop, and the short inclines seem to hurt more. Yesterday, we rode what we thought what was the U23 road course. From the information we had via the handy USA cycling website, including the map on the blog from a few days ago, we rode the entire course only to find out today that it is not the REAL course. Gone are the tough decisive climbs that you would want in a national championship race. The distance has also changed to about 115 miles but the course should actually suit us better than the original course. The old course had one super steep climb that would have blown the race apart followed by a fun technical descent. The new course will be six laps, with 1,050 feet of climbing per 20 mile lap. What Thomas does best, bombing down the twisty descent.
We also previewed the time trial course today, which promises to be a challenge. The 33K course has 1,287 feet of climbing that will shake times up a bit. We expect some times will dip into the mid 40 minute range and we are shooting for a solid 50 minute ride but anything could happen come race day.
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