Boise has a golden girl!
What a
story of success!
Perhaps it started when she attempted her first
"Y-Not-Tri" triathlon in Boise, Id. She even earned a spot on the 1999 USA resident team the same year Wobble-naught came to be.
In 2001 she joined a local women's team called Goldy's that Wobble-naught did the fits and helped get support for e.g. footbeds, Kinetic trainers, etc...for to race the HP Women's Challenge, in the day, the worlds longest stage race through Idaho for women.
For both the United States and Boise, Idaho cycling community can be very pleased with the first-ever Idahoan /USA women's gold medal in
tt. Only one other women has won a Olympic gold and that was Connie Carpenter-
Phinney in road in 1984.
She has made her mark in Beijing, China within the world of women's cycling and she has earned it with all her hard work, plus the many miles up "Bogus Basin Road Climbing"! It has been said, she put on a dominant effort!
Let it be understood, this game is not nice and if you perform well you can expect the gossip. That can really take its toll within your head and it makes you wonder who is really your friend or foe. You have to over come what makes you uncomfortable or go away and many do just that. That's a hard one, but it comes with success.
Kristin cycling career has blossomed, but not without leaning to overcome the issues of success. You become a target of gossip, as she learned many years ago when on chat interviews. It was said not long ago at local races, "who does she think she is, racing like she is racing for a world championship." Perhaps it didn't occur to them that she was? She climbed the professional ladder quickly, as did other Idaho racers
Rebecca Rusch, Georgia Gould. Success can piss some people off!
Kristin has had issues in the past with her chain dropping off from the big ring to the smaller ring, so
AceCo engineers in Boise, Id, Eric Jensen created a piece in hopes to stop chain drop and Armstrong tested it hard while training here on our local uphill, Bogus Basin Road. Her confidence level in shifting really went up because she could not drop her chain. As we always preach, every pedal stroke counts!
Racing means you are going to be stressed, you have to be very driven, and for a long time e.g. the past 8 years, as just a year ago, she was on Team Lipton and the major company who owns Lipton Tea pulled the plug on her and her teammates. Ouch!
Kristin as been racing pro as a dominant competitor after being a former triathlete after getting her start in a "Y-Not Tri" event in Boise, Id. for about the same number of years as we have been in the business. We where introduce to her fit her at Moo's Cycles in Hyde Park when her then boy friend Brad Page a PT at Idaho Sports Med., and strong tri guy, who was part of our Alpha/Beta test team wanted her to try our fit out.
We even had her gracing our home page for years in the Team Lipton kit! In cycling, you never know if you will find a team from one year to the next. It can really tax your dreams unless you are can we say "mental tough." Cowgirl up and let it buck! You can't let anyone step on your game, if you want to be the best!
Can you say bitter/sweet. The road to the top is not easy! You race on many different teams, so you learn to be on your own. She fought back tears as she watched the America flag being raised, then stepped down to the arms of her husband Joe
Savola a tough cycling racer in his own, then started crying with joy. It has been almost 8 years mental work from the days when she was on a local team "Goldy's" who Wobble-naught supported while in the HP Women's Challenge 1,200 mile race.
Dreams come true! Olympic gold became her objective, "It's the ride of my life." She gets a "GOLD MEDAL" in the TT.
All the years culminated Tuesday night - with a gold medal around her neck and tears in her eyes as she hugged her husband Joe. It doesn't get any better!
Of course Boise, Idaho celebrates her success, as they should. We have a very strong cycling population and we just had a local crit, that Kristin lapped the field. All kinds of cycling, like road, tt, mtb, and soon track with a new velo track under construction and it has already shown with so many top racers coming to their own, against the world.
Lets hope this gets other young women into the game! It's worth it!
Why Not Try!
Well done Kristin Armstrong "Olympic Gold Medal Winner."
Results
1 Kristin Armstrong (United States) 34.51.72 (40.459 km/h)
2 Emma Pooley (Great Britain) 0.24.29
3 Karin Thurig (Switzerland) 0.59.27
4 Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France) 1.00.90
5 Christine Thorburn (United States) 1.02.44
6 Judith Arndt (Germany) 1.08.05
7 Christiane Soeder (Austria) 1.29.03
8 Priska Doppmann (Switzerland) 1.36.07
9 Zulfiya Zabirova (Kazakhstan) 1.37.75
10 Susanne Ljungskog (Sweden) 1.41.78
