Valley of the Sun (bike race) Current mood: amused It's cooler here in Phoenix than I thought it was going to be. It's also very dry which burns the faaaahhhhr outta my lungs when I ride hard! Today was the time trial. It was cloudy and cool. It was fun getting on the ole time trial bike again. I've missed her. I think of my beautiful friend, John Cobb, every time I ride her. John Cobb is a master of design and aerodynamics, and he did a one-of-a-kind paint job to my Javelin bike. It's insane! John gives me a lot of strength because I trust him implicitly. He fitted me with SystemOne. More information on that can be found at www.bicyclesports.com. My TT bike has been hanging in my garage since last June. My mechanic, Carl Irwin of BikeOne in Norman, OK., put her together for me right before this race. I glued on tires a couple of days before the race and put on a cassette on to my disc wheel. Then I called my buddy Aaron and picked up his front wheel (which is a tri spoke) the night before I left for Phoenix. Nothing like waiting for the last minute on things! LOL! Live life by the seat of my britches I say! I didn't get on my time trial bike until the day before the race, and I rode it for an hour and a half making the necessary adjustments here and there. I've changed my seat position over the last year due to a nagging hamstring injury which is probably due to my nagging Achilles injury! ANYway, I rode around for about 20 minutes before the race and then hopped on the trainer for another 10 minutes. I felt pretty good except that my legs were a little tight in some areas due to being on my time trial bike. It has a different setup than my road bike. I chatted with some gals I know right before the start, climbed on to the ramp, chatted some more with the official who was counting down the seconds until I started. All of a sudden I heard, "3--2--1." Off I went! I passed some people and kept chasing my minute girl who's name is Gabby for short. She's a very strong rider, and I knew we'd be in our own little race. She saw me at the turn around and new that I was closing in on her. She put the hammer down. I put the hammer down. She gained ground. She lost ground. When it was all said an done I came out ahead and ended up winning the whole time trial. Yep, you heard me. I'm shocked. I know there are lots of people who are in better shape than I am right now. Of course I'm probably in better shape than some people as well. I just didn't expect to win. I didn't think I'd get last, but I didn't think... Well, gosh darn I'm happy about this!! I went for a run after the time trial and found out about my win later on. There are two more days to go with the road race tomorrow and the criterium on Sunday. I'm very relaxed about races these days as I stated in my previous blog. I'm just goin' with the flow and makin' waves... Cheers! Andrea

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