Wind was a BEAR! My goal for this race was to be consistantly hard and keep it wheels down. I started out fine and at about mile 1, I got to the open fields. The wind was coming from my right to my left. It was so strong that I had to lean into it about 5 degrees to go straight down the road. A dog decided to come out and play around mile 3 but luckily for me he stayed on his side of the road.

I got to the left turn point and was feeling ok. The Zipp 404's (second ride ever) were sounding neat and I was feeling stong. Most of the way down to the turn around was fast because of the mostly tail wind. I knew that as of the night before there were 57 people in my Category. My goal was to be 50th and not get passed. There were random pot holes but I managed them well. I passed 2 people on the way out but I wanted to pass the guy who went off in front of me because he gave me the "evil" stare before he took off.

I got to the turn around and skidded my back tire. It is on a two lane road on the North Carolina/Virginia Border. So you come to a dead stop and then...WHAM...into a 20+ mph head wind. This is where I had to focus something fierce. I was also excited because I got there before 30 min which means I was averaging at least 25 mph. I had visions of coming in around an hour. Mother nature laughed at that one.

I was not going to let my resolve give up. I kept it in the big front ring but found myself mashing even when I was in my 23. So I made the smart choice to drop to my small front ring and use the small rear gears. It gave me a wider choice of gears and I could keep my cadence up. If I felt my stroke get easy, I up-shifted, if I felt it get hard, I down-shifted. My goal was not to slack and give it everything and see if I could do it.

I kept counting as I passed people. I went from 53 to 49 in like a 1/2 mile. I was feeling good about myself. There is nothing better than hearing the sound of a disc wheel as YOU are passing it. :P

Got to the right turn and it was now a cross wind. Again, I had to lean into it to keep from getting blown around. I was knashing my teeth pretty much the whole time. It makes it hard to drink that way.

I just kept pushing and pushing. When the road became new pavement, I knew I was close to the line, but not sure how far. I was still in my small front ring. By the time I saw the finish line, I tried to get into my big ring, but I had lost about 200 meters of sprint time. I probably lost about 10 seconds there. So I made sure to tell my team mates that when they hit new pavement, go all out.

Nothing really. Other than know how close the finish line was and push that a bit harder. I gave it what I had and I was consistant. I even felt good enough to go for a bit of a run afterwards yet I knew I left it on the course.

That's a neat feeling!!

Road around a bit and warned people to use their gears out there. Went for a quick jog to see how it felt.


Experience. I treated it as a bike leg of a Triathlon. I was glad that I had my Aerodrink because I used it a lot. But I'm sure a 'pure' TT rider would have gone without water. I figure train how you race and this was a hard training day.


I was disappointed that there was no T-shirt. I guess I am spoiled with running races and Tri's. Apparently, you only get something when you place. That's my next goal.

It was a great day to beat up my body and although I didn't place where I wanted, it was all that I had. I did place the highest on the Conte's Hilton Cycling Club team. Not bad for a first timer!!