We're at Richmond to watch the cycling world championships.
Friday- nothing going on yet. We drove downtown, walked along start/finish area, chatted with Shimano support crew, scouted the area of the individual time trial for a good spot to watch from and a place to park. Then drove out of town a few miles south to scout the team time trial course for a good place to watch that tomorrow. Back at camp, Ron and Cheryl had tickets for us to the opening ceremony; we drove them downtown, found parking with some difficulty, walked to the ceremony venue park. Not much of a ceremony; mostly speeches by local officials, mayor, governor, senator, and UCI president. But they did have the Richmond Symphony there plus a pop singer. Wound up with 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th- rousing.
Saturday- No actual races today but team time trial practice in a.m. and individual time trial practice in the afternoon. We parked a couple of miles from the ttt course, rode the bike to the course, watched a while, rode a newly-built bike trail which parallels the course several miles to downtown, watched individual time trial practice a while (different course). Enjoyed the riding and spectating. Weather clear and warm.
Sunday- Stopped near downtown for church, then after a hearty breakfast drove around to our vantage point for the team time trial. For all the other races this week the riders will represent their countries, but for the ttt they will race for their regular professional teams. The course started north of town, passed through downtown, then made a loop and retraced its route back downtown to the finish. We chose the spot where the southern loop diverged and came back together, so we could see riders going both directions. It turned out to be a relatively popular spot; not crowded, but there was a video camera up on a platform and it was also an intermediate time check point. The spot was adjacent to a 7-11 and buildings with overhangs, so there were snacks and shade available. The elite women's team trial was in the late morning, and the men's in the afternoon. I had the start list from the newspaper, so I noted the times the teams passed and was able to keep track of who was ahead. During my racing days there were many instances of race officials messing up the timing and scoring of time trials, and I'd always griped that they made it too complicated. They just had to write down the times each one started and when they finished. Get two people doing that and you have a check against mistakes. That's all there is to it. Today I put myself to the test, with the added complications of having teams coming by in both directions. It worked out just as easily as I thought. The teams passing on the return from the loop only had about 4 miles left to the finish, so I knew pretty much what the results were before the last riders even finished. They supposedly had live video streaming on the internet but I was not able to get it, so my scoring was the only progress information we had there. A moment of excitement: one of the top contending men's teams, Tinkoff Saxo, got tangled up and crashed right in front of us. They got up and finished, but their race was history. At the time of their crash they were leading by about 10 seconds, and if they had not crashed they would have ended in the top five. A fun day for us, but S was very tired by the time we got home.
Monday- There was time trial racing today for junior women and men under 23, but we took a rest day and got some chores done. We were having trouble with one of the stove burners flaring up and were able to get a service man out to fix it. And the tire with the slow leak, which we have had fixed twice, was still leaking, so we went to a tire place and had the spare put on. if we get a flat the tire now in the spare position will not have much pressure in it, but we do have a little emergency compressor (thanks, Matt for the gift from a couple of years ago), so we should be OK. We'll get a new wheel for the leaky tire when we get home. Tomorrow there are more time trials including the elite women. There was some light rain this afternoon, which slowed down the late starters among the racers. Tomorrow's forecast includes 30% chance of showers. Note on today's results: an American girl, Chloe Dygert, won the junior women's time trial by a huge margin: over a minute in a 20-minute race. 2nd was also an American girl.
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