Norman, Oklahoma's own Andrea Ratkovic has returned with her new TDS cycling team from Mallorca, Spain, and she's keeping us up-to-date on the day-to-day life of a professional cyclist. She'll provide an updated journal periodically on the RTN web site.

Read journal entry #11

Okay, well I ended up riding the time trial after all-- on my road bike. My director "suggested" that I do it since he had already paid the entry fee. It was a spectacular course with a few climbs but much more flat and downhill sections. A full-on TT bike was a must. In fact, I spoke to a friend of mine afterwards who said SHE could have used a 56. There you have it.

I was the only one I saw who was on a road bike with 32-spoked wheels and absolutely NO aero gear. Okay, well I WAS wearing a skinsuit. Other than that my bike and I were naked as far as aerodynamics were concerned! Oh, AND my helmet was way too big and kept falling down into my field of vision. I had to keep pushing that darn thing up. Unfortunately, some schmuck in Minnesota stole my helmet while it was drying out on the hood of the team vehicle. Lazer has sold out of their smalls, so one of my teammates gave me their L/XL. The back is broken on it as well, so it doesn't sit too well on my head, but really I needed a Lazer helmet, and that's what I got. End of story.

Guess what ya'll? I didn't get last. That's right. I DID NOT get LAST!! LOL! I think I beat 10 people or something. Cheers to everyone who did the time trial. It was technical and fast. I did what I could with what I had.

Tomorrow is the road race, and it is a brutal course. There are climbs, general rises, and some rippin' downhill as well. The climbs here will take more out of a rider than he/she can make up on the downhill. The time trial was different in that aspect. The climbs weren't terrible at all especially when you were able to go into them with mach speed. The time a rider lost going uphill was nothing to what he or she was able to gain on the rest of the course.

I went for a run in the sandy hilly trails after the time trial. It was hot and dry and smoggy, but it was fun. My legs are sore because I've been riding every day and doing efforts daily simply because I need to be training hard right now to peak for later races. I am staying in Redlands until Monday, so I will ride hard the day after the road race as well. Then I will take one day off for travel and commence with hard training again on Tuesday.

Much love to ya'll,
Andrea.