Prologue

Prologue: 4.4k, rolling, 7 turns
Starts in one town, and ends in another. The towns are 4.4 k from each other (go figure). You start on a ramp (I have never done that before! Yipee..)
There was live music. Big blow-up banners. People. Welcome to a real bike race.
Like I said, you start on a ramp, and fly down it. But, immediately after the ramp, you take a sharp left turn. Then you take another left. Then you take a right, left, right left and blast for 2k through a field full of sunflowers. It was beautiful. Then you take a right, after a slight descent. The turn is dirt. Yes, dirt. You ride on dirt slightly, then descend again and take a sharp left onto gravel. Can we say technical? I pre-rode the course. It took 15 minutes. I raced the course, it took 6:10. As a team you can have one follow car for one rider. US Cycling chose me. Why me? I don’t know.
We rode 1 hour in the morning. We drove 1 hour to the race course. We warmed up for 1.5 hours. I raced for 6 minutes and 10 seconds. It flew by.
I ended up in fifth place! Wow. Fifth isn’t so bad. I braked on every corner. I bet I could have shaved some time easily through some practice on bike.
Sweet. I am happy. I started the next stage fifth in GC. Wow. Wow. Wow.