Blackdog #2

Last night was the second edition in the Blackdog series.

Driving down to the dog is much harder than I ever expected. Why do they need to shut down every major highway to do repairs? The saying is so true for Minnesota we have two seasons: Winter and Construction. Due to the construction I had to take a different route. Let’s just say I was ready to turn around and go home—I was so frustrated with the lack of directions I had. Luckily I’m not the only one who needs to be taken to the start line. Check out the last portion of this video. Funny!

I found my team and started to warm up with them. We all felt pretty sluggish and not excited to do a Time Trial on an extremely windy day—again! We were happy that it was finally warm—95 degrees and not humid!!!

At the start line one of the officials told me that I would owe him a case of beer if I didn’t pass the lady two numbers in front of me. I looked over and said I should owe him a case or two if I don’t pass her. She was on some funky bike with a back—never have seen that before.

I’m not going to get into much detail since my last couple of entries have been the same experience, but with the wind I noticed that I had to drop down to 16 mph but was able to get back up to 20 even 24 in the headwind sections. I was ready to lose it much sooner than I normally would. On the way back, with a bit of a tailwind I was able to pick-up to 28 in some parts. The final turn was in crosswinds. I didn’t feel as confident in my performance as Sunday, without arrowbars (I’m racing the stock bike series), but I was able to tell that I came in 15 seconds slower than the first Blackdog. Not too bad since the wind was twice as bad.

Once the results came up…I was shocked to see that I got my second win in one week!!! I won buy about 40 seconds! I came in 2nd place overall for the women, only 29 seconds behind my teammate who got 1st place in the women’s open—open has the whole aerodynamic set-up (TT Bike, helmet, wheels, booties, etc).

This weekend is the Duluth Classic—four days of racing. Friday is a TT. Saturday and Sunday are both Road Races. Monday is a crit.