Tara Llanes Diary: August 5, 2009

US National Road Championships
Hey Hey Hey!

(Editor’s note: Tara Llanes was among sixteen athletes who pulled on a Star- and-Stripes jersey in the USA Cycling National Time Trials in Bend, OR, on July 31. Here’s how the USA Cycling website reports Tara’s victory:
“Time trial day was also highlighted by Paralympic racing, which saw four national champs crowned. In the women’s CP 1-2 category, former pro downhill mountain biker Tara Llanes (Los Alamitos, Calif.) made her comeback to the sport by covering 11.9 kilometers with a time of 33:43 for the Stars-and-Stripes jersey.” Below is Tara’s blog about her race as posted on her MySpace page.)

Hi, all! I just got back from US National Road Champs in Bend, Oregon and did pretty good. I felt SUPER good and ended up winning the thing even though there were a bunch of wrong course markings and 3 other people got DNF'd (did not finish).

I drove up to Bend with my friend Aaron Baker in his big RV and got to the event a couple days ahead of time. The next day we pre-rode the course around 5pm just to let the weather cool off a bit since it was in the 90's earlier that day. I was a little confused as to how far I was supposed to race. I went onto the USA Cycling website earlier in the week and it said 24k, but it was pretty confusing. So I emailed USA cycling to ask and they said I was racing 20k. Okay, cool...even better! So when I pre-rode it I made a mental mark of where 20k was since there were NO course markings anywhere.

So the day of the race I had my whole warm-up routine down and found a flat road right by the race to do it on. I wanted to time my warm-up so that I had about 10 min. to get to the start before I took off. Well, I timed it literally down to the second because when I got to the start I had about 30 seconds to go. I get into the start gate and there are these 2 women going back and forth kind of yelling as to when they should send me off and I'm getting more and more confused. Then I ask the US team coach, "I'm racing 20k, right?" and he answers back, "NO, 12k!" So with 20 seconds to my start the distance changed once again. Then I asked him, "Will there be someone at the turnaround point?", and he says, "yes, yes, yes!" I turn around, hit the start button to my odometer, and take off.

I had a pretty good pace going and the longer I was out there the better I felt. As I was coming up to the 3 mile mark and where I'm "supposed" to turn around I see one of those rock cairn things on my side of the road and then a guy with a clipboard on the other side of the road. So I yell out to the guy, "Is this my turnaround?!" The guy just looks at me and doesn't say anything. So now I'm totally confused and starting to slow down my pedaling. I decide to go another .2 miles or so and don't see anyone I can ask so in a panic I decide to turn around. Well, the road was narrow and didn't have a bike lane on either side and turning a hand cycle is like trying to turn a semi-truck on a single lane highway!! I tried to make the turn, but ended up in the deep sand on the side of the road instead! So I'm in the middle of my race and stuck on the side of the road in sand. I tried and tried to get out, but I was just stuck! About 45 seconds later I hear a car coming up so I flag it down. It ends up being a guy that worked for the race so he pulled over and I asked him if I was at my turnaround point and he says, "No! It's up the road." So I ask him if he could just get me out of the dirt and point me in the right direction. So he turns me around and by now my heart is pounding because I've wasted SOOO much time turning around, getting stuck, waiting, & turning around again that now I'm sprinting my ass off to try to get to the turnaround point. I finally see 3 cones in the road with a guy sitting in a chair and I yell out to him, "Is this my turnaround point?!!" and he says it is. I get turned around one more time and now I'm in full sprint mode to get to the finish, but I've got 3 miles to go. I pinned it back and on the last hill to the finish I hit 17mph.

I couldn't believe all the confusion and chaos during that race. What a joke!! I ended up winning, which was cool but it was just nuts that day. As it turned out I guess that guy that I yelled out at the first time to ask if it was my turnaround was a parent that had gotten onto the course when he shouldn't have, but regardless usa cycling should have had even better course markings and should have given those 3 riders that got DNF'd a re-start, but whatever.

So after the weekend I took a few days off and enjoyed the weather with some friends and I'll be back on the training program soon.

Thank you all for writing in all the time with words of encouragement!!
Till next time...
Cheers!
tara
www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com