The Individual Time Trial: Your own personal pain-fest

Hello from the quaint seaside town of Gruissan, home of the first race of the Tour de L’Aude. A dark cloudy sky with light sprinkles gave way to mostly sunny and challenging windy conditions.

Today’s event was an individual time trial. This is where riders are set off onto the course one at a time. The object of today’s race is to launch off a starting ramp, and blast like a scorched dog at maximum speed until you cross the finish line (or lose consciousness, which ever comes first). Today’s top finishers were riding at or very near 50-kilometers per hour. In fact, one directeur sportif told me today was the fastest pace ever set in a Tour de L’Aude time trial. Team TIBCO put in a great effort today, and goes into tomorrows race a mere about 20+ seconds behind the race leader.
Just the facts, ma’am. Race results (unofficial) posted at finish:

Yellow Jersey, Regina Bruin, Cervelo 4:48:46
Green Jersey, Linda Villumsen, HTC-Columbia 4:52:02
Pink Jersey, Marian Voss, GS Nederland Bloeit 4:53:11
Emma Pooley, Cervelo, 4:55:49
Red Jersey, Annamiek Van Vluten, GS Nederland Bloeit, 4:56:91
Adrie Visser, HTC-Columbia, 4:57:05
Elizabeth Armistead, Cervelo, 4:57:83
Kanka Kupfernagel, German National Team, 4:59:60
Ina Teutenberg, HTC-Columbia, 4:59:67
Emma Johansson, GS Redsun, 4:59:62

Team TIBCO results:
Ruth Corset 5:08:74
Brooke Miller 5:11:57
Joanne K 5:17:22
Rebecca Much 5:17:81
Emma Mackie 5:28;07
Amanda Miller 5:36:65