Monrovia TT #7

I usually love this course, but racing the day before finally caught up with me. My legs had been through enough. I had to work hard just to keep turning over the pedals. On a day where the weather and wind were almost perfect, my body just couldn't take advantage of it. I managed to push through and still placed second, but it hurt. Laurel, you are amazing. Finishing even though you blew out your tire. You are one tough CHICK;)

Near perfect conditions today. Finally broke the hour mark this year. I should have broken 59 minutes as well (time for the enevitable "but") but some dog decided to try to have me for breakfast. Throwing my bike to avoid him I popped my hip out of joint.

After that point an already painful 40K turned downright miserable. Bill Lawhorn of Saturn Dayton afterwards told me my cadence never looked right again. He thought the dog got me. So after some stretching and some fidgeting on the bike I was able to get back into somewhat of a rythm. For those of you that don't know the Monrovia course on your way back in you can start to see the finish area from more than 1 mile away. I flipped my computer over to time to check how I was doing and was pleasantly surprised to see it counting still in the 56 minute range. Lots of self encouragement later I crossed the line in 59:17 a scant 7 seconds off Joe Niccum's best time on that course this year and just 17 seconds off my goal.

My legs were certainly feeling yesterday's race at PUR. To help out I rode most of today 1 gear lower at a higher cadence. Today's time kept me in third in the overall Monrovia hunt for the Cat 4's with 1 race remaining. Congrats are due to Texas Roadhouse for claiming the Lightspeed frame for the 50k TTT blazing their way to 57:52, more then 2 minutes ahead of the next team.

The first 20K was really fun and I felt like I was going pretty fast but the last 20K didn't go so well. Sadly on one of the turns after the turn-a-round I hit a rock causing me to flat my front wheel. If this wasn't bad enough the support verhicle had allready taken off to help with the finish. So I basically as out in the middle of no where with a front flat tire. I ended up riding home on that tire anyway. I can honestly say the only motavation I had to finish in this crapy condition was to get another Savage Hill Point. But then towards the end with one mile to go a great thing happened! Wendy came to the resure and let me borrow her front wheel. I don't recall what my time was because it was supper slow but I know I finished riding almost 20k with a flat front wheel getting last of the womens field. Thanks Wendy, I owe ya one girlfriend!