elkhorn - after tt (stage 2)

I slept better last night than I ever have at a stage race.  Probably something to do with sleeping outside with nothing to do the next day but ride my TT bike to the startline, race the TT, then chill, then ride to crit, race crit, then chill.  If only all stage races were this simple!  The folks at Elkhorn really pulled out all the stops. I hope anyone that sees the post KNOWS they HAVE to put this on the calendar next year.   It has been awesome!

On to the TT: I chilled a little too long this morning, so only got about 20 mins on the trainer before I had to take off to the start.  Still, legs were spinning smooth and I was able to put the power on.  I went into the TT with no real ambitions or strategy.  This is the first time I hve ridden my TT bike since Walla Walla and I changed the saddle on it before I came out to Elkhorn. (BTW: new Fizik Ares is the bomb!)  Was told most of the time is made on the way out, so I dug pretty hard on the first half.  Felt like I was going good for the 1st quarter as I caught my 30 sec man and was close to getting the 1 min man at that point.  2/4 I started dropping a bit.  Not knowing the course and since it wasn't an exact out-and-back, I wasn't exactly sure how far to dig.  Also, I felt like it was hard to find a groove on the course.  There was just enogh up and down that I found it hard to settle into an even tempo.  Even found myself coming out of the aerobars more than a few times even on the flats.  Also, I kept feeling like I was sliding forward a bit, which put a lot of stress on my arms.  Needless to say, I think I need to take a trip to see Russell at Upper Echelon to get the fit dialed in a little tighter before Cascade.  After this weekend and my mid pack finish in the TT, I am pretty confident in my ability to do really well in GC at Cascade. I still have a lot of time to work on the TT bike and get a bit more intensity in my legs.  High Desert in two weeks will tell all!

All in all really happy with my performances this weekend.  It is good to be able to ride hard and recover well from races again.  It helps that I have such an awesome team to be racing with!  Both Eli and Boone put in solid TTs putting both of them within top ten GC.  They are only a few seconds out of higher positions, so we have some plans for the crit tonight.  I am feeling good with no GC or stage aspirations, so my plan is help them as much as possible.  Probably only to keep everything together till mid race when one of them can launch a move.  If I do end up in a move that starts to stick, I'll probably go easy unless one of them ends up bridging. I just hope it stays dry!  Will try to write about the crit tonight, but might be dinner into bed since we have an early start tomorrow.