September 2, 2001
Gold

I'd had a blessed year of racing and was showing abilities I never knew I had. Having played catch-up on my Saturday morning club rides for years, I was now dominating every ride, and it felt really good. Unlike Korea, the competition here wasn't weak. At the finish of every single club ride, at least one rider would come up and ask, "Why don't you join our team? You have a lot of power!" On my last Saturday morning club ride I went a step further. It had been a truly hard week of riding, I knew the state time trial was coming up, and I needed to make a special effort. I did a race on Thursday night and the field broke up, so I ended up chasing for most of the ride--but that was the plan. I wanted to wear myself out, so I kept allowing the gaps to come, and then tried to chase back. Come Saturday morning I was so tired. I was ready to get thrashed.

My plan on this last ride was to make myself crack--to ride so hard and expend so much energy that my system would crash and I'd be forced on the defensive as the other riders attacked and attacked me. I wanted to be forced to dig deep and hurt. From the start I took charge, leading the group, knowing this would wear me out and keep them fresh. I had a small mechanical problem in the first mile and stopped, letting the other 16 riders ride away with about a 1 1/2 minute lead. Then I caught them, and then, five miles later when we hit the first climb, I went around all the riders, to the front of the group, set the pace up the hill, and broke everyone. This was unbelievable! Only two riders could stay in my draft and we rode off together, sprinting for the stoplight. I was the first there. For the entire ride I stayed in front and no one could handle me. Boy if Kenny could see me now!

Out of all the great rides I'd had that year, beating most of my personal bests, setting a personal best on every training time trial I rode, and at the age of 35, riding the best I had my entire life, short of going to Okinawa in November (still my original plan), I needed one great way to cap off my season. Something I could put in my hand. On September 2, I got it.

I'd never been so nervous before a state championship as I was this day because I knew I could do something great. I expected to ride well. The wind was very heavy, making times slow. We went one at a time, in one minute intervals, no drafting allowed, just racing against the clock. This race is purely to see who is the strongest rider in the state by who could ride 25 miles the fastest.

When we were getting ready to start, I spoke to the guy in front of me and asked him what his time was from the previous year. It was just a few seconds off my best time, so I thought perhaps I could use him to gauge to my progress, a bunny rabbit to chase.