KRISTIN WON!!!!! WE WON!

WOW. Yesterday was a THRILL! We had the race in the morning and I was feeling pretty good that I had a good finish and was (honestly) a bit relieved that Jim said I did not have to do the TT. (Instead, I am doing Ardeche- another week long stage race and then Giro Toscana- another week long stage race). Chrissy, Meredith and I were assigned to go get time gaps for Kristin to see where she was on the course compared to Christian Soeder (Raleigh). Kristin’s main competition for the overall GC was Judith Ardnt from T-Mobile who was up on her 39 seconds. On a 20K TT, that is nearly impossible to get from a rider like Judith. We believed in Kristin and had worked hard all week, hoping to put her into a position where she could have a chance to win. We wanted a win badly and certainly, of all riders out there, SHE was the one who could do it.

I am sure that I have said it before, but that National teams are typically not that good. Usually the best riders are on the trade teams and the National teams are a hodge-podge of strong riders who are racing to get some experience. In the past, Jim would have been excited to have riders making the breaks- now we have a team that is creating breaks, driving them, defending a leader and working to control the race. It made me really proud. All week, we had been racing as if we were in the leader jersey and now we got to see if it would work. We had only one stage left and a multi-million dollar behemoth of a team standing in our way.

Chrissy and I were out on course with the time checks at the 11k mark and got another check about 5k later. In that time, Kristin had made up 11 seconds on Soeder! It was phenomenal and she makes it look so easy! We were quite sure at that point that she would win the stage, but we were hungry for more than just that. Chrissy and I hitch-hiked back to the start where the whole team was crammed in a car, listening into the race radio as we waited for the final riders to come in.

Every time the radio crackled, our hearts would skip a beat a bit- what did Judith get? What did she get? Judith was the second to last rider off (then Vos) and finally we hear that Judith got a 27:12... she was a full 44 seconds slower than Kristin! I yelled so loud that I could swear that Jim will never hear properly out of his left ear again! We still had to wait for Vos, but we knew- Kristin had done the impossible... she beat Judith by a ton and won. We won. I can’t tell you how sweet it was... it was amazing.

We had so much fun hooting and yelling for Kristin... it was fun to see her beaming and laughing at us trying so hard to make her laugh. It really was priceless. What is particularly fun about our win is how scrappy our team is- we are a hodge-podge of riders... all wearing our different team shorts and all on different bikes. We are not the well oiled and funded machine that is the magenta squad of T-Mobile. Yet, in the end... T-Mobile had the leader jersey, the points jersey, the sprint jersey... and lost them all. They left that race with the team overall classification and one stage win (Judith’s) and we left with a climber jersey and the overall. Wow.

That was yesterday... today, we flew to France and are in a really cool little city called Nimes... it really is an interesting combination between Italy, Spain and France. We got the luxury of walking around and exploring a bit. The city had originally been a Roman city and has a big colosseum that was build over 2,000 years ago. Still used for Bull Fighting (the Bull Fight capitol of France- hence the Spanish part)... but the streets are lined with decidedly French street cafes and trees. I felt like I was walking at one moment along Parisian streets and the next through Italy, and then, I found myself thinking that I must be in Spain. We had a nice day.

Tomorrow, we will head to Ardeche and race the following day... I am almost all better, but still lingering this cold a bit. The rest today was great- a nap in the sun, a good walk, some great food (and even some wine and dessert)... Should be race ready soon.