2017 San Dimas Stage Race, Stage One Time Trial
Tick - tick - tick - tock - tick - tick...
The ticking, it never ceases; from before eight in the morning to well beyond one in the afternoon. Precise, equal increments. At some point in time, someone told us that clocks, those markers of passing time, make two sounds - tick, tock. But if you listen closely you will notice there is really just one - tick, tick, tick, tick. Two sounds - that is too extravagant, too diverse for time, which is nothing if not monotonous, metronomic.
The clock, always the clock, inexorable in its forward progress. If it could get hungry its appetite would be insatiable. If time were a song - and I know it has been the topic of many - it might be "I Ain't Never Satisfied."
The time trial is all about the clock, always counting down, always there to mark the passing of time, be that passing short in duration, or long. There are two clocks at the start house - one for the rider with muscles ready to jump at the mark of zero, the other for everyone waiting their turn. The starting official counts the final five seconds - ticks - by voice and a retraction of fingers - five, four, three, two, one, go! At that brief moment, a microsecond, or less, time stops and restarts, though few notice the change.
Again, time passes incrementally. It does not pass any faster if you go fast, nor slower if you go slow. That does not mean, however, that there are not differences in the perception of its passing. For some it will seem to fly, for others it will plod. Only the quickest will reach the next transition, end of the race, another stopping of the clock, and resetting of time in under seventeen minutes.
Most of the race photos will come over the next couple days, but there are a few in the album for stage one.
The clock, always the clock, inexorable in its forward progress. If it could get hungry its appetite would be insatiable. If time were a song - and I know it has been the topic of many - it might be "I Ain't Never Satisfied."
The time trial is all about the clock, always counting down, always there to mark the passing of time, be that passing short in duration, or long. There are two clocks at the start house - one for the rider with muscles ready to jump at the mark of zero, the other for everyone waiting their turn. The starting official counts the final five seconds - ticks - by voice and a retraction of fingers - five, four, three, two, one, go! At that brief moment, a microsecond, or less, time stops and restarts, though few notice the change.
Again, time passes incrementally. It does not pass any faster if you go fast, nor slower if you go slow. That does not mean, however, that there are not differences in the perception of its passing. For some it will seem to fly, for others it will plod. Only the quickest will reach the next transition, end of the race, another stopping of the clock, and resetting of time in under seventeen minutes.
Most of the race photos will come over the next couple days, but there are a few in the album for stage one.
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