Masters Nationals in Louisville, KY

June 30 TT 4o km (35-39 category)

I must not have been mentally prepared for this one. The day before I left, my handlebars came unscrewed and I didn't get a chance to try out my TT position with aero bars that I'd never used. More of a mental set-back, I guess. I also had worked a night shift prior to driving on Sunday. I slept at my teammate's house and transfered my stuff the the team BMW car. It was a good 6 hour drive to Louisville and I arrived around 11 pm for a 11 am TT start the next day.

My parents came to Louisville to visit with me (meet me halfway). This was our first trip to Louisville (minus passing through). It turned out to be a nice enough city to visit. We toured the new riverside park and drove around some of the neighborhoods. The waterfront park has some nice fountains for the kids to play in and swings overlooking the river for the adults to enjoy. So, we did the touristy thing in between the races...

...Which didn't go so well for me. I didn't even think to wear my skinsuit for the TT... maybe not minutes of extra time, but sure was psychologically a hit... so was the lack of aero helmet and disc wheel that everyone else seemed to have as they flew by me on the TT course... 7 women passed me? I think I gave up the race after the first two passed me. My aero bars were too close to my body and I couldn't stretch out. I felt like I couldn't breathe at all... and my hips started to cramp on top of that. Maybe also an air pollution factor since I felt like my asthma was bothering me during the road race, as well. So what can I say? I finished dead last out of 13 in my age category. It wasn't even a race if you look at my time. Oh well. The course was rolling with a head wind on the Indiana side of the river starting from the casino. Mom and Dad sat under our pop-up tent. After the race, a strong gust took it into a field and pretty much ruined the tent. It was nice to have them there.

July 1, 2008 • Road Race in Cherokee Park

This course was beautiful. It was in this nice, wooded park on the east side of Louisville. It was a 5 mile loop (9 laps for our field) up and down these hills. The hills were big chain ring... ok, could be done in the big ring, not sure if I should have... These hills wore me down lap after lap. The first lap was manageable. The pace was fast, but not where I felt like I would blow off the back. The second lap picked up pace and we passed my teammate's (Cara) category (30-34), so I knew we were going pretty hard. They tried to shell me off the back a couple of times on the hills, but I hung on. I don't remember which lap I got dropped on in the first half of the race... but I remember the corner that it happened. It was not after the tightest or more difficult corner, oddly enough it was after an easy corner. A few girls just picked up the pace a little after the corner and no one seemed to chase. By the time I realized what was happening, they had a nice gap on us. I did manage to get back on, but the effort cost me later on when I got dropped a couple more times on hill efforts... and finally for good on Cochran's Hill. Did I have more? I don't really know. I wasn't the only one to drop there and I managed to stay with a Hincapie rider for a lap or two more before I just couldn't hang with her either. I let her go. It had seemed that we kept seeing a dropped rider from the front pack on a hill in front of us, but we never could catch her. She was always just out of reach. Then I got passed by another rider. I got 8th place.

My parents left on July 3rd. I saw fireworks with my teammie, Janet, and her hubby whilst sitting on a swing overlooking the river. They weren't spectacular (it has Navy Pier to compare to), but it was pretty watching them over the river.

July 4, 2008 • Criterium at Churchill Downs

Raining. Not cold, just very wet. Never fun during a criterium with corners. This race didn't have very bad corners. It was on this paved infield road that looped around. It let up to a drizzle during our race (the warm-up was full on pour). The race wasn't particularly exciting. The pack stayed together and the pace was manageable except for a few efforts that only told me that I had no chance of staying off the front. I sucked wheel for as much as possible to save up for the sprint. Like everyone else, I guess. There were only 9 of us there today (rain?). I was actually in pretty good position and confidence going into the last lap. Then in the first corner, this girl came into me on the inside and almost crashed me. I held it up, but I lost my desire to play this game. It was pretty deliberate and totally unnecessary. There was plenty or road! I didn't do much in the sprint but stay out of the mess. And then two girls went down at the sprint line, just after crossing it. That, too, was just brutish aggressive nonsense. This isn't some international tour and there wasn't even any money on the line. How ridiculous. I got 7th out of 9.