There was a fiasco getting to the RR start. Something happened on I-10 and we were crawling at 5 mph. Luckily we were able to get off and take a back road. We arrived in plenty of time. It was really windy and 85 degrees. It was a beautiful day. I knew the wind would make the race. This race normally comes down to a sprint finish. The wind was from the southeast, so we had a tailwind up the hill and a head/crosswind everywhere else. As soon as we made the first turn onto Hwy 87 Expresscopy started attacking. Nothing stayed away in that headwind. We made the turn onto Hwy 387 and had a kicking tailwind. We flew up that climb. I stayed at the front and tried to figure out where to sprint from for the QOM and finish.

We made the turn onto 187 and the attacks started again. Nothing stayed away. The second time up the climb was the QOM lap. Kori had Nicole Evans set tempo all the way up the climb. I was up front to be a part of the sprint. My intent was to get some time bonus seconds. We were three abroad winding up the sprint. When they stood up I had no gears left to turn over. I crossed the line in 4th place…just out of the bonuses. Nicki Wansgard won, Jennifer Reither 2nd, and Kori Seehafer 3rd. The four of us had a gap, so we started to work it. We were soon joined by Gabriella Gonzales-Ferrat and Nicole Evans. We worked for a while and were soon joined by Carmen McNellis, Beth Fisk, Stephanie Bourbeau, a Cat 3 woman, and two others. We really pushed it to establish a gap. All of a sudden we were down to 10 of us. I had the numbers of those ahead of me on GC taped to my handlebar, so I knew I was the lowest placed GC rider there.

As we were going up the hill for the third time, Stephanie overlapped wheels with Carmen and went down right next to me. I literally rode by with an inch to spare. She took down Gabriella too. Gabriella was superwoman and put in another phenomenal TT effort to close the gap to the group a few miles later. Going to the finish line there were 9 of us. I analyzed the situation. My goal was to win the race and move up on GC. I knew if I let up tempo up the climb, I would end up in 8th place GC. I decided to try attacking at the bottom of the climb to open up some gaps and hopefully be able to hold it to the line. I attacked, but I didn’t get away solo. I did break the group down to five. My legs were almost cramping…I needed more water. I tried to hang on as Nicole drove the pace up the climb. They opened a small gap on me. Try as I could I couldn’t close it to be in contention for the win. Nicky won, Jennifer 2nd, Kori 3rd, Nicole 4th, and I was 5th. Unfortunately, I only moved up to 7th GC. I am within seconds of 6th and 5th. Those time bonuses would have come in handy!