7/19/2012 Cascade Cycling Classic - Stage 2

19 July 2012 - Written by Guest Rider Melina Bernecker Cascade Cycling Classic – Stage 2 Crocked River Time Trial Hoping to redeem myself from yesterdays Road Race, I approached the day as a new race. The course was a 27km (16 mile) mostly flat out and back course with a few little rollers along a quiet little country road next to a little river. Conditions were favorable with a light head wind on the way out and relatively good road conditions. There were going to be some fast times today!!! We got to the race early with plenty of time to warm up and get ready. I had a front flat tire which I needed to tend to prior to warming up, one of the men’s teams full circle racing had borrowed my TT bike the during the prologue so they very kindly lent me a disk wheel set and repaired my wheel for me. Feeling like I had run out of excuses why not to do well I made sure I got a decent 1 hour warm-up on the trainer. Start times were posted in reverse GC order so most of our team was off pretty early. The Women’s TT started at 12 noon and Beatrice, myself, Holly and Jenny were off just after noon. Amber and Lisa were allowed to have follow cars (very Pro) to yell at them to go faster. With all of us having had a thorough warm up we nervously lined up in the starters chute, with tired legs form the previous day we all knew this was going to hurt. Bea was off first, as I got into the starting position I could just see her disappearing over the little hill in the distance. Only a minute behind Bea headed out on my TT, riding a little more conservatively than I wanted at the start, I headed down the road. I had broken the TT into quarters building up speed in each sector and careful not to burn too much fuel for tomorrows Road Stage. Happy to see the turnaround a quick U-turn and I headed back to town and the finish line!!! With a slight tailwind the way back seemed much quicker. Seeing my teammates heading out was also nice as it spurred me on to go harder and faster. With the last hill about 5km from the finish line I powered up it out of the saddle and gave it all I had left for the finish run. One little slight lump just before the finish ensured a fast downhill finish. Heading back to camp the girls all felt happy with their efforts, which gave a good outcome for the day. Kristen Armstrong (Exergy 21) once again took out the stage with a win by over a minute in a very fast time of 34.40, Alison Powers (Now & Novartis MS) finished Second in 35.57 and Carmen Small (Optum) finished Third with 36.07. The SC Velo Girls did well finishing 24th with Amber Gaffney (38.38), 44th Melina Bernecker (39.38), 49th Lisa Campbel (39.55), 81st Jenny Rios (41.40), 82nd Holly Breck (41.47) and 87th Beatrice Rodriguez (42.34) As always big thanks to Dennis, Charlie, James & Sharon for your encouragement and all your hard work supporting us.