JessicaPhillips took four years off from racing.

Retirement didnt suit Jessica Phillips too well.

Phillips, the 2002 USA womens road race national champion who just got back into competitive racing this season after taking four years off, won the womens elite time trial at the USA Cycling Elite Road National Championships on Friday. The 31-year-old Phillips posted a time of 50 minutes, 35 seconds on the 21-mile time trial course to narrowly edge 2009 Cascade Cycling Classic winner Evelyn Stevens by two seconds.

Last years national time-trial champion, Alison Powers, finished third, 23 seconds back.

I tried just about everything, said Phillips, of Aspen, Colo., who during her four years away from cycling went to graduate school, taught skiing, dabbled in personal training and even ran a restaurant. But I was bored not being challenged.

Unseeded at the beginning of Fridays race, which started and ended at Summit High School and ran up and down Skyliners Road in addition to looping around Tetherow Golf Club, Phillips started the race about 20 minutes ahead of Powers, Mara Abbott and Chrissy Ruiter (of Bend), the riders that finished 1-2-3 at last years time trial national championship.

Every second of the race I was thinking, Am I going hard enough or too hard? said Phillips, who won last weeks CCC time trial, which was staged entirely on Skyliners Road. I was thinking about that every pedal stroke.

With almost 30 riders still on the course when she completed the course, Phillips blazed through the finish line without hearing her time. She went back to her van, she said, put on headphones and listened to music as the rest of the field finished the race.

Ruiter placed ninth in the womens elite race. Lisa Magness, also of Bend, finished 13th.

I didnt know Id won until Meredith Miller (who won Thursdays national championship road race) came up and told me, Phillips said. Im so, so happy.

Phillips said winning a time-trial nationals is even more special than taking a road title.

The best rider doesnt always win the road race, Phillips said. Sometimes theres some luck involved. This (winning the time trial race) feels more hard.

Jacquelyn Crowell of Orlando, Fla., won the womens U23 national championship in 53:44. Amy Dombroski, who won the U23 national road race on Thursday, and has three national time trial titles, finished fourth.