Fitchburg, day 1

The first day of racing is done, we’ve had a big seafood dinner and watched ‘Legally Blonde’ as a team. Who says bike racing isn’t fun?

The first of our field went off at 9am this morning for a 7.8 mile time trial. It’s a gently rolling course with two turnarounds and then a weaving hill up to the hotel and the finish. There are almost 50 girls in our field and the competition is stiff, especially as our pal Ellen hasn’t upgraded yet!

Speaking of Ellen, she’ll be wearing the race leader’s jersey tomorrow—to her dismay, she won the time trial, finishing in 21:05, so tomorrow as we start the circuit race, she’ll be the girl with the target on her back. (Those playing the home game will recall that this would be Ellen’s second time trial—ever. Yeah, we hate her too.)

The rest of us straggled in behind her, with eminently respectable times ranging from 22 minutes flat to 22:52. The majority of the field is substantially closer in times than in 2003, so we fully expect the racing to be fast and furious for the next three days as everyone attempts to move up the general classification. But the weather should continue it's perfectness, and you know us—we love a challenge.

Official Results:
1 Ellen Moses (Foundation) 21:05
16 Liz Seward (Swanky’s) 22:00, down :55
21 Nancy Camp (Swanky’s) 22:18, down 1:13
29 Eve Ashcraft (Swanky’s) 22:38, down 1:33
31 Andrea Urich (Swanky’s) 22:42, down 1:37
32 Emma Nelson (Swanky’s) 22:44, down 1:39
34 Courtney Trabon (Swanky’s) 22:52, down 1:47
49 finishers