Ivy (Maine Bella) Wins Seacoast TT

Our friend of the NY Bellas, Ivy Luhrs, had a stellar day last week - here's her report:

I'm very happy to say that I won my age group in the Seacoast Time Trial today....I was also the fastest woman over all. It was a 12.8 mile rolling course with a slight, but ever present, breeze/light wind. Temperatures were in the High 50's low 60's which was a huge comfort when compared to what we have been having around these parts lately. Sue and I had to get up at 4:30am to eat a bit, pack up little red truck, and get ready for the drive down to Kennebunkport. Registration opened at 7:00am and then there was a riders meeting at 7:45 to discuss the road, traffic, course conditions/traffic issues.

My start time was at 8:30, so I had to get a wiggle on and give my bike it's shake down cruise to make sure all was well mechanically with it. I literally had just finished putting it together on Thursday having just got the special brake levers I needed. But after a brief cruise with it, I dubbed it AOK and proceeded to set it up on my kinetic trainer so I could get warmed up properly. Time went by fast and before I knew it was time to roll.

Susan was standing right at the start line with me and she handed me a warmed up hammer gel to down just before I got ready to start. She had the package stuck in her bra so it would flow out real easy, giggle, tasted like a gooey raspberry pie, then it got washed down with Gatorade lemon/lime Endurance formula....ah the fuel of Champions .

The start of a time trial is always tuff as it takes the body time to settle in and get used to the effort, it would be especially tuff on this day because of length of the race which would make it a virtual sprint. It took me some time to settle in, but then I got going. About a 1/4 of the way into the course I caught my minute man (yes a boy) so that made me feel things are going well today and I soon passed him and drove on. I was not familiar with the course so I had to pay special attention and watch for course marshals and turn markers so I could anticipate the turns before I got to them....no problems, all went well :o).

Before I knew it I was up on Route 9 making the run for home when I was pulling so hard on the top of my time trial bars I knocked the front derailleur into the small chain ring (this was the second time I had done this) so I cursed like a stable girl....then quickly put it back into the big ring and announced a mental note; (note to self)...keep your F-ing hands off the top of time trial bars...lest yee shift the bike without wanting said event to occur! LOL!

But, no matter, 'mental notes in hand' aching arms and all, I made it across the line in 33:20 a minute and half ahead of my closest competitor :o).

This was such a special victory for me after just getting off antibiotics just two days ago. I had been fighting a nasty sinus infection that happened after a nasty cold I had gotten just after the Crit in Rhode Island on April 7th.

So here I go,

This was the first bout of a sixteen race series, (But It's best of your eight time trials) So I need to ride at least eight races to make it count, and to accumulate enough points to possibly win a Aegis Carbon Fiber Bike Frame at the end of September.

Wish me luck :o)