St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial

The time trial is done and over with. Woke up this morning to moist air. It was raining here at our host house in Stillwater. Fortunately, it was dry at the course in St. Paul. It did start raining some before more start though. I was off at 8:40am. Ouch! I think I was the 20th rider to go. I hopped on the rollers around 7:50 and started my warm-up. I didn't get a great warm-up in because I needed to pre-check my bike position, stop by the bathroom one last time, and change my wheels. After a small issue airing up my front wheel, I headed back to the start. Rolled up to the check-in area and made it through. I stood there for a few minutes while they called a bunch of numbers, other than mine. Finally, they started calling my number. I had 15seconds on the ramp. Go figure, I couldn't get clipped in. I was pretty frazzeled at the start, but tried to gain composure as I started. I found my rhythm and went. I should have pre-ridden the turn around again, because I went way too fast into it. The barriers came a bit to quick and I had to come to almost a complete stop. I sprinted my way out of the turn around and got back into the rhythm. I saw I was gaining on my 30second person and tried to catch her. I close the gap even more once we got to the hill, but never closed it completely. She was about 5 seconds ahead of me at the finish. When I came across the line, they said I had the 4th best time of the day. Sweet! However, I knew this wouldn't last. I was pretty early to go off and there were a lot of fast girls behind me. My time was 15:08 which was good enough for 25th place.

Kristin Armstrong rode a 13:48:55. Alison Powers road at 14:01:14 and Errine Willock rode a 14:36:95. My teammate Anne finished 4th with a time of 14:36 something. Our guest rider Jessica Phillips rode a 14:52 for 13th place. Our other guest rider Edwige Pitel rode a 15:07 for 23rd place. Toni rode a 15:43 for 51st place and Kacey rode a 16:10 for 76th place.

Downtown St. Paul Criterium is later tonight. I'm hoping it warms up and the rain stops. Update to come later!
-A