I had a bit of an epiphany today during the 5 hour drive from Birmingham to the start of the Labor Day Omnium — a time trial held across the Lake Hartwell dam on the South Carolina – Georgia border. I realized that I was more interested in the race venue than I was in the race itself. Following last week’s three state road race, this was going to be a two state time trial. I’m pretty sure that’s a first for me. Also, I would be racing my bike across a dam that created the massive lake (962 miles of shoreline) with Clemson on the northern end nearly 45 miles north of the dam on the lake’s southern end. This is the lake that I was baptized in, the lake next to which I proposed to my wife, the lake I used to jog next to, the lake next to which we used to do two up, standing start 53×11 sprints on the CU cycling team.
It would be great to cap off that nice story with a resounding time trial victory, but in the end I was happy to place 26th about 37 seconds behind the winning time of Bobby Sweeting (Kenda Pro Cycling). Frank Travieso (Team Coco’s) was 2nd followed by David Winston (Globalbike) in 3rd. I was targeting more than 400w, but ended up coming in at 393w for the 4’45” effort. I’ve included the annotated power map and power plots below.
2012 Labor Day Omnium Time Trial power plot – Lake Hartwell Dam (click to enlarge)
2012 Labor Day Omnium Time Trial power map – Lake Hartwell Dam (click to enlarge)
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- Garmin screen captures from my ride at the hotel showing all three lakes. Today’s time trial was at the bottom of the screen next to the US29 bridge over the Savannah River. Lake Hartwell is the largest and lowest. Lake Keowee is the middle lake both in height and size – its waters cool the Oconee Nuclear Power Plant. The highest lake is Lake Jocassee. This lake is fed by Whitewater Falls and its waters are pumped up the mountain to a storage resevoir to convert nuclear power at off times into hydroelectric power at peak times.
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- Waiting for the start – I was the second rider to start.
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- Looking towards the finish around the final bend in the dam
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- Looking from the finish backwards on the course
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- Looking towards the dam
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- Part of the dam
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- Lake level is quite low, I believe that is a buoy suspended in the air
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- Handcyclists pass over the dam in the narrow space between the planks and the wall
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- Looking south down the Savannah River from the dam outlet
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- Island with thunderstorm brewing in the direction of Clemson
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- Far off view of the dam
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- My kids would have spent their entire time on this playground or playing on the beach if they had come to this race
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- Looking up at the start
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- Glassy water
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- Corp of engineers sign
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- Informational sign
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- Post sunset sky on Lake Hartwell by the hotel
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- “Blue Moon” by the hotel. A blue moon is the second full moon in the same month. I think it only happens in 31 day months when the first full moon occurs on the 1st and the second full moon occurs on the 31st.
Cycling Adventures with Brian Toone 