Redlands Cycling Classic Begins...Revised

A quick update on Redlands Cycling Classic.
Time Trial: I think it was only 5k with two climbs. I thought how bad could this be? I can suffer for 5k....ouch! It hurt. There's a false flat section that had a huge headwind before the last two climbs. I think I cooked myself on the flat section. I got up and over the hills, but not with any umpf. I think I was around 2 minutes back from Amber Neben! She won by about 45 seconds over Christine from Webcor. My question is this: How is it that I was 2 minutes back on a 30K (almost an hour long) time trial last week, and this week almost 2 min back on a 5k course (only took Amber about 11 minutes!)

Road Race 72 miles: This was a fun course. It had three major climbs in it. First we got all the sprint points out of the way on the windy flats. Yeah for Laura Bowles....she took third in a sprint. I almost wrecked pretty bad. I got caught up in some wreck and my bike violenty whipped me and skipped off the ground left then right then left again. I managed to stay upright and had two separate racers pat me on the back for keeping it up. YIKES that was a close one.
Then all the climbs were back to back to back! The first climb was a big California highway climb...it went on and on, but no one got away. The second climb was steeper and had a little bit of a dirt section toward the top. I started in BAD position and had to pass my way up to the top. I was gapped off a bit by the front group but descended like mad and caught back on at the bottom. The rest of the peloton chased and chased and caught on to us a few miles later. A small group got away before the final climb. Katherine Currie was in this group. She attacked the group and got a gap on them. We hit the final climb and the peloton shattered at the base of the climb. I went hard and hung on to the front group for as long as my East coast March legs will allow! Eventually they climbed away from me. The road was full of small groups climbing and suffering together. I was alone for most of the climb. I really thought that I had a rear flat with 5k to go...it was just my imagination I guess. Amber Neben drilled it and caught the break and pulled it to Currie. As soon as they caught Currie, Mara Abott attacked and won! Amber came in after her.
What an awesome win for Mara Abott!!