Originally Posted by Randy Goodwin

She's black? She's female? I just thought she was a dang good bike rider. Didn't think anything else had anything to do with it. Talented for sure.

Talk about pressure. George filled her with confidence and gave her something constructive to think about that kept her emotions in check until the time was right...after the finish line.

We met Craig Treble 13 years ago when we went to Japan to do some races with our TA/FC. He rode his bike and the Japanese loved it. We've been friends ever since, although I don't see him that much. But if I know him he is as proud of her accomplishments as anyone else, albeit at his expense.

FYI, we have a friend who is Asian. One time she asked my wife and I "How many Asian friends do you have? I couldn't think of any. For the next few days I thought about it and came up with quite a lengthy list. The next time I saw her I said "I thought about your question about how many Asian friends I have. I had no answer because I couldn't think of any. But the reality is, I do have a lot of friends...and many happen to be Asian. But I don't classify any of them in that catagory. So much so that I couldn't even recall if my friends were or weren't what you asked at the time" She told us she has asked other people the same question and she seems to get the same response. I said "Good. You don't need to label your friends as anything else but friends. I hope my friends don't classify me as the big heavy set older white dude with thining hair that is turning grey."

I guess I'm a little different. I look at Melanie, John, Peggy, Ron, Hillary, Nancy, Tony, Kate, Antron, Dave and Robert as great role models and talented racers. Nothing else. This is the year 2007, not 1967.

RG