Minnesota I am in you!!!!

I packed up my bike, and hopped on a redeye flight to Minneapolis. It still hasn't fully sunk in that I'll be on the road for 2 months straight. My concept of "home" has been a bit skewed since I've been on this bike journey, so I've attached myself to the motto "home is where the wifi is". It's basically the lie I tell myself to not miss my husband and pets so much.

Right. So I'm here in Minneapolis and I have completed stage 1 of the North Star Grand Prix. How'd it go? It went. Not my best work, but definitely not my worst. I'm definitely getting a lot more comfortable with the idea of time trialing, but I haven't quite gotten a solid routine/ equipment situation organized.

For now I'm working with some clip on extensions with clics that plug into my eTap. Here's a gallery I took of the installation process yesterday. Not gonna lie, it feels pretty cool to be my own mechanic when I'm on the road (although I always take my stuff in to neutral support JUUUST to make sure).

Local cyclist Tammy McLemore and the folks at Major Taylor Minneapolis have been invaluable for this experience. Tammy put together an entire support team of folks to make sure I have the best race experience possible. They have been taking extra good care of me, and I have zero doubts that if it weren't for Tammy, I probably would have had to stay at home. I would not have been able to organize on this level with such short notice. My village is the best. Of this, I am sure.

So I mostly Merckxed the time trial, and in retrospect, I think I would have done better to go full Merckx. Back home, I'd been practicing with nothing but my road bike, no TT bars or any other equipment. Trying to pull out my best performance on equipment I'm not used to was not the best decision. The road wasn't exactly smooth which lead me to the discovery that my extensions weren't on as tight as I thought. Things got really uncomfortable really quickly.

What have I learned:

I've got two choices... either I practice time trialing using the extensions, or, I go full on Merckx at the next competitive TT. Practicing at home will also force me to practice installing and adjusting them to perfection.

Where did I succeed:

NUTRITION!!!!! (Huge victory for me)

Tonight is the Crit, Right now is nap time. Until then!

The North Star Grand Prix has begun!