Some early morning rain may have scared off some competitors, but Kyle was there to put his new bike to the test. As the rain moved south, the roads were starting to dry by race time. It was still fairly cold. Some decided to race while wearing their rain jackets.
If you have ever been north of Leavenworth you will know that there are lots of hills in the area, and this makes for a very tough time trial course. It's very hard to keep your momentum. As soon as you reach the bottom of one hill, you're back out of the saddle climbing the next. There were very few flat spots on that course. Even the turnaround was uphill since they positioned it on a banked curve.
Just before the start, Kyle's two-minute man could be overheard bargaining with the racer behind him, something to the effect of "Please don't pass me until after the turnaround." Photos indicate that the plea was unsuccessful, and as a result Kyle never did have anyone in his sights to chase down. The next two riders were always over the next hill.
After a long delay due to some technical difficulties, we finally had results. There were several times clustered around the 16 minute mark, and Kyle came up on the losing side with 16:10.
Kyle: 9th / 13, Cat. 4