[race report] Steamboat Springs Stage Race: Stage 1 TT

I had been feeling nervous all week about the Steamboat Springs Stage Race. I'd heard it was brutal and I didn't know what I was in for.

TTs are my game (obviously) and I was feeling a little nervous about this one because I'd heard it was climby.

After we arrived on Friday, Eric and I slowly spun through the course and at an easy pace, averaged 17.5 mph so I was feeling pretty confident and excited, which was a good feeling given all the anxiety I'd had over the week. 

When I started on Saturday, I was feeling a little tight in my hips and quads - which really impacts a TT position. We started with about 5 miles into the wind and my friend Erin, who started 30 sec behind me, caught me in 2 miles which made me feel pretty shitty - 30 seconds over two miles is a LOT. Shortly after that, my friend Laura passed me but I know she is an amazing time trialer so I didn't feel terrible on that one as I assumed she would win (and she did) and I didn't think I'd have a hope of contesting her. 

My teammate Denise told me the day before that she and some teammates had done the TT course in 39 minutes so I assumed I could get it done in about 35. And prior to actually racing, I thought the course was only 13 miles. So as I came up on 13 at 37 I was pretty excited ....until I saw the 1k to go sign. Oops. I finished in just under 39 minutes at 21mph which I was actually pretty proud of until I saw the results and saw how fast everyone else went. 😕

I had to ultimately just tell myself that I was proud of how I performed and remember that I could not have performed this way last year. But I was pretty bummed that I got slaughtered at my own game and began to feel pretty nervous about how destroyed I would get at the road race, which certainly was not my game.