On Saturday morning I did a pre-Tsunami Pali loop with Mark Little and Alex Tellez... The first wave of the expected tsunami was meant to arrive sometime after 11am, so I figured there was time to fit in a bit of riding. There was zero wind, and the whole island was so quiet it was spooky.

The Tsunami... didn't really happen. Well, it did, but not causing any damage. Just some wacky ocean currents and rapid decrease / increase in tide. Fast forward to Sunday morning and it was ultra windy and raining. It seems like it always rains for Castle TT.

Lined up and ready to rock. Thanks to Rich Cochrane for the photo!

I was 11th rider off, but didn't pay much attention to who I was chasing... I just drove to the race start, got in a plenty time on the trainer, put on the race wheels, and rolled over to the startline on time. I chose to run the Zipp Super-9 rear disc and 1080 front on my Scott Plasma TT bike. Last year in crosswinds the 1080 was a challenge to control and this year was no different. I hit speeds of 45+mph going past Olomana, again going into Waimanalo, descending Makapu'u, and again in the dip going up the climb to Hanauma. I spent the entire ride gripping the bars for my life, hoping I wouldn't crash, and trying to not think about how f**ked up I would be if I did crash. Thankfully, I didn't crash! I caught my 30sec man going into Waimanalo, then had to pass 4-5 cars on the left side. Sketchy, but I didn't want to lose time and I had a clear shot to pass them. On the more exposed parts of the course I was riding with my hands on the flat section of my basebar, gripping it tight, and trying to lay down as much power as I could. Coming out of the bottom turn off Makapu'u was a challenge trying to keep on my side of the road as the wind and slick roads had me drifting out to the centerline. Butt-clenching ride! I passed my 1min man before Sandy's then powered up the final climb at 450+ watts in the 55t ring. I only had to use my 44t for the first 1min of the race with the rest of the time spent in the 55t.

I crossed the finish in 24min 23sec (my SRM had me at 24:20), which as far as I know is a course record... It's definitely a PB for me on that course and at 29.78mph is my fastest TT ever. Damn, I want 30mph! My time was good enough to take the win ahead of Tony Lang in 2nd and Gary Shields in 3rd.

Results (Top 10) Time / Avg Speed (mph)
1 Mike Zagorski 24:23 29.77
2 Anthony Lang 24:57 29.09
3 Gary Shields 25:03 28.98
4 Kevin Kawainui 25:32 28.43
5 John Flanagan 25:40 28.28
6 Ray Brust 25:41 28.26
7 Carl Brooks 25:47 28.15
8 Tai Bletcha 25:57 27.97
9 Paul Lengermann 26:01 27.90
10 Jason Smith 26:20 27.56

Full race results here.