In case you don't already know, an ultracycling race is different from any other sporting event, even other endurance events. There is a feeling of pastoral camaraderie not found anywhere else. There are not as many people as you find at a big city marathon or even most triathlons, but you spend a lot more time with them, get to know them better. The line separating racer, crew, volunteer or journalist fades out like the paint on an old country road.

After four years, all of these groups have gathered around this course as if attending a family reunion, a giant picnic where the main course is pedaling—lots and lots of pedaling. Add to that lots of food and drink, hotter temperatures, some steady winds, and a decep-tively difficult 20-mile loop, and you have the spicy stew that is the Texas Time Trials.

The start/finish line for all event stands in front of the New Hope Baptist church, to anoint riders with a minor victory after completing each lap, indeed renewing their hopes for success. For those in the longer events, the final laps are not so minor. One common question to most of the division winners was, "When did you feel the worse? Was there any point you felt so bad you wanted to quit?" Most responded that about...

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If you didn't make it to The Texas Time Trials, you missed some great racing! Mother Nature provided great weather, though heat became more of a factor this year. Still, it didn't rain!

And the racers came to race! New course records were set in several categories. One notable race was the 100 mile UMCA National Championship, which was won by Patrick Evoe (TX) with a time of 4 hours, 13 minutes! If you have ridden the "Goatneck" course, you know what a feat it is to average roughly 25 mph and do it for 4 straight hours.

So many personal triumphs were noted along the route this weekend. Many racers tried to call it quits, only to be talked into "one more nice & easy lap" by either their crew, volunteers or race organizer, Dan Driscoll. On Saturday night, many of those racers accepted their trophies with huge smiles of completion.

Complete results (along with Course Records) were posted on this website this week. Also, a complete race report is being compiled by Tom Rodgers and should be available shortly.

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS:

Wow, if you ever question cyclists' devotion to cycling, you should be around The Texas Time Trials. Volunteers were the "air in the tires" for this race. Not only doing the obvious things like keeping laps and entering times, but handling everything from SAG to course signage, setting table and chairs for the dinner and hauling trash afterwards. Why, racers Ray Torrey and Dennis Cook were even convinced to help set the race scaffolding 3 hours before their Tejas 500 start! Now, THAT is dedication!

There are too many amazing volunteer stories to reach them all, but here are some stories of how cyclists gave up their weekend to put on TTTT:

Bill Fox and Lannie Smith had already spent countless hours creating a computer race program, but then they were the sole computer gurus for every single lap!

Kalleen Whitford was absent last year due to the Leakey Death Ride, but was back in full force this year. With almost no sleep for several days, she provided and installed all the course race signage and worked tirelessly to keep racer laps and keep everyone's spirits up.

Brad Flickner used all his power napping skills this weekend and kept racers racing. Starting with the initial race setup and ending with the last bag of trash, Brad was key to a successful TTTT.

H.C. Gordon was Ol' Faithful again. Showing up from the beginning, he was handling registration every day, sagging the course daily and still had enough energy to cheer his son Casey in the 100 miler!

The PRELIMINARY RESULTS are in, they will become official after Friday Oct 5.

You can also see the SPLITS for each race category in the RESULTS ARCHIVES. And don't forget to check the COURSE RECORDS to see if you broke any of them.

Our congratulations to all the racers for achieving your personal goals once again.

CelebratedImages.com: Photographer Manny Ortiz, is dedicated to providing personal photographic services to individuals and/or groups in the tri-state area. Visit his website to see the full set of professional photos of the 2007 Texas Time Trials.

The new Flash Photo Album is ready to view and it has some fantastic images of the cycling experience. Many thanks to Tom and Tuula Rogers for capturing the scenes that so ably depict the intensity of cycling and the celebration of life that our sport means to us.
Find out how to view, download and print these high resolution images.

Kalleen Whitford has shared her photos as well and they can be seen at Shutterfly.