Team Morgan Stanley/Specialized/Team Spine's Chris Lyman powered to a strong Silver Medal at the 2009 Masters World Championships! Thanks to all our fantastic sponsors. And note that in the race photo, Chris is actually on his Specialized TT bike; it's just so aero' to the wind that you can barely see it.
Here's Chris's report:
"Finished second, fourth fastest overall. By comparison, Mike Olheiser elite national champ and masters AG champ) was two seconds faster. Third best time was one second faster than me. Jens out-classed us all by 20+ seconds. Feldman was roughly 30 seconds behind me. Hard to think that 30.6 gets you second place, but that's how the competition is here. My time (24:21) was about the same as Jens' time last year.
Really hot day, the winds turned around from what we were anticipating -- sounded like everyone struggled a little bit with the heat difficulty but still a very fast course. With a head wind out the plan was to go out a little bit harder and I mistakenly chased too many watts and paid the price. Lesson learned that next time I would dial it back and take what the body's giving instead of working to hit a number.Heat and elevation contributed to a tough day and sapped the energy. Even though it was not going well, I hit the turn in approximately 12:30 so I thought maybe I had a shot. Managed to finish strong and covered in soupy combo of sweat, drool and likely other assorted bodily fluids. I rolled back to an area near the finish line with the time board and plenty of room to pace off energy (where was all that reserve on the course???). Had first place but with 20 people yet to come in I was far from ready to celebrate, as the fastest guys were still out on the course including Jens Volker who had the fastest time overall last year. One by one, people came in and you could see toil with times ranging from 25-29. Came right down to the very end with the final bunched together; just had a sense the winner was in there. Sure enough, Feldman came through 30 seconds back but Volker was right on his wheel with a time of 23:56. Fastest time of the day and the only person to go under 24.That night, after many beers and wine at dinner, I congratulated Jens before walking to the stage, and spoke again after the ceremony. I commended him on the incredible time. he responded in his German accent - "I know Richard but I look you up on ze Internet and say "who iz dis man who come from the U.S. to race me?"
We both laughed at that and traded a few German-US backslaps. I told him I'd hopefully see him next year to give him a run for his money. Very humble, nice, fast guy.
Epilogue: what a fantastic experience, beautiful venue and cherished opportunity to see and race in such an event. As a bonus, I learned that trophies make great biersteins and that a silver will hold just shy of 2 pints. Looking forward to 2010."
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