The final race of the US national championships was the individual time trial. The course was the Cascade TT course plus an extra loop at the end with some short, relatively steep hills coming just when one is tired. It was a long TT for nationals with the winning time of 50:35. Everyone had the previous days' road race in their legs as well. Webcor's Evelyn Stevens missed the title by 1.7 seconds! The race was won by Jessica Phillips of Lip Smackers, back after several "retirements".
Here is Rebecca's Report:
Time Trial National Championships - Bend, OR - Friday, July 31st, 2009 - After 2 weeks in Bend, OR following a very successful Cascade Classic and watching little Dombro win U23 road race, the only race left to conquer was the Time Trial National Championships. Evie rejoined Webcor for the Time Trial and we all came to the race ready to throw down one last time before parting ways for the rest of the year. The course was a super hard 35 km endeavor in extreme heat. It was definitely the hardest Time Trial I have ever done. With the temperature hovering right around 100 degrees, I drank 4 water bottles just warming up and everyone was stuffing ice down their backs on line. Not only was the course hot and long, but the nature of the course was interesting to figure out as well. Without a steady rhythm, it had to be divided into 3 sections to mentally handle it. The start went straight uphill gradually (but significantly) for the first 10k or so before you flipped it at the top for part 2 which was bombing down what you just came up. The third and final part of the course was a loop that contained 3 good little kickers along with flats and a couple downhills into the finish. All in the heat...HARD!
Evie did an awesome job representing Webcor once again and missed out on winning the stars and bars by only a second. 2nd place at nationals is not too shabby though for her first time ever racing nationals! She did an awesome job and I reckon there will be a title for Evie in the years to come. I held out to get 6th and Kathryn got 8th, while Amy got 4th in the U23 race which was an awesome ride after killing it in the break the day before. We all did the only thing you can do in a TT...went as hard as we could and all in all it was a successful day.
Already excited for next year!
Technorati tags:
webcor,
cycling news