Your daily bike race: September 23rd

Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked!

September 23, 2015; 5:31 AM • by Susan Howson

Results

An exciting day it was yesterday, as the elite women and the junior men (let’s replace “millennial” with “juniorman!”) battled it on the Time Trial Circuit!

  • Our beloved Adrien Costa and Brandon McNulty (both Team USA) placed second and third, respectively, in the Junior Men’s Time Trials. We were very proud, particularly because we got to cheer them on in person. People! It really makes you feel somewhat responsible for someone’s hard-earned victory when you shout at them as they ride by at breathtaking speeds. We did not earn their successes, but we will take credit.
  • Leo Appelt, a dastardly German, took the gold with a time of 37:45.01. Costa trailed him by only 17 seconds and McNulty by just less than a minute. You could say he was right down to The Wire.
  • And now for the elite women, who do the full two laps of the circuit, despite only doing one as juniors. Oh, probably because a young woman’s delicate nervous systems might overheat and cause her to drop off the bike in a swoon, only to be awakened by a kiss of true love. Anyway, Linda Melanie Villumsen from New Zealand wore that gold medal with pride, with a time of 40:29.87. Anna van der Breggen, a Netherlander, missed that gold by less than three seconds, and Lisa Brennauer, another dastardly German, missed it by about 5.5 seconds. Bummer!
  • Kristin Armstrong, our top USA contender, had the time to beat for awhile, but ended up about 21 seconds behind, placing fifth–just above her teammate, Evelyn Stevens.

Today’s Big Bike Action™

The elite men duke it out today on the Individual Time Trial course! The course is described as a “classic power Time Trial course” by someone remaining anonymous on the Richmond 2015 description. I guess it’s classic because it starts in the shadow of an Eiffel Tower? These special men start from King’s Dominion and head through Hanover, eventually going across Virginia Union, and ending at the Broad and 5th finish line.

Here’s a neat little video about today’s race that does a great job of explaining the course and selling Hanover County–it has history for the men and shopping for the women! What’s that…it’s all going dark…I think I’m about to faint…someone find me a true love’s kiss!

Men’s Elite Time Trials

Roads and reminders

Majorly exciting tip: King’s Dominion admission is free today, BUT only the Eiffel Tower, Berserker, and (thank goodness) the Dominator will be open. 

If you’re tooling around Hanover, or if you plan to after reading this message, all roads at the intersection of 30 and 301 will be closed. Just avoid 301 as much as you can. The Powers That Be suggest you use Old Dawn Road instead. Likewise, all roads leading to the intersection of Georgetown/Hanover Courthouse and Georgetown/Rural Point will be closed. You’ll be able to cross Richmond Turnpike at St. Gideon Road and Hanover Courthouse Road at Fire House Road and between St. Paul’s Church and County Complex Road, so that Hanoverians can get to the Hanover County Government Complex1. If none of this makes sense (which wouldn’t surprise me, as I am not exactly a Hanover cartographer over here), read the full road guide for September 23rd–that’s today! (PDF). The Hanover road closing stuff begins on page two and goes to about page five before it returns to the familiar byways of RVA. Check it all out.

As for Richmond, The Downtown Accessibility Area is the place you’ll want to keep in mind–the box made up by Broad Street on the north, Governor Street on the east, Main Street on the south, and 2nd Street on the west. You’ll be able to cross Main at 7th and 9th Streets, coming northbound–approach from the south! And you’ll be able to exit this square of excitement via 6th and 8th streets.

Trying to get into the eastern part of the city from 95–the Franklin Street exit will be open today, but, as always (or at least until the end of the race), 74B (Broad Street at MCV) is closed.

Roads that are closed for today’s race will close around 11:00 AM, with heavy emphasis on “around.” Be prepared for these roads to not open up precisely at the projected 4:35 open time either. Best to avoid until big fat margins of error can be cleared on either side of the race time window.

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## Survival guide

  1. I have learned that Hanover finds it the simplest practice to name a road after a thing that is next to that road. ↩
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Susan Howson

Susan Howson is managing editor for this very website. She writes THE BEST bios.

September 23, 2015 5:31 AM · in , , and more 3

Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.

  1. Andrew Dolson on said:

    So, given the distance, when do organizers look for the lead riders and peleton to reach, say, Lombardy and Broad?

  2. JCH on said:

    There isn’t a peloton (pack) for today. This is the individual time trial with each rider racing against the clock. They start at 1.5 minute intervals and can’t draft each other. Catch a rider and you have to pass and stay out of their slipstream. So riders will be coming through for almost 2 hours. They’ll be averaging over 30 mph for the majority of them. First rider leaves the start house at 1:00 so they’ll hit Broad Street somewhere around 2:00 with a steady stream of riders coming through until Tony Martin (aka Panzerwagen) from Germany rolls through unless he catches someone in front of him.

  3. Garth on said:

    I can’t speak as an organizer but the entire course is 32 miles. The riders should finish that in about an hour so if you want to watch I’d be around Lombardy and Broad NLT than 1:45ish.

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