Win in Furth!

So...after too many excuses but no writing, I am finally posting my first proper blog thingy.

I have now been in Europe for just over 3 weeks, and it has gone quite quickly. I was picked up from the airport by my team-mate and house-mate Sandra 'Miesi' Missbach and together with Liv Gollan we spent a few days in Holland trying to get over our jet-lag and get used to the cold. Our first European race of the season was the Ronde van Vlanderen (Tour of Flanders) - a great race with so much atmosphere but unfortunately for me a lot of cobbles as well. It was great to be back and racing with the team and I was just hoping that it would be possible to help out somewhere on the course. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and again I proved to my team that a cobble specialist I definitely am not!

After Flanders I headed to Germany with my team-mate Theresa Senff for two weeks of training in the hills. I wasn't quite prepared for just how cold it was going to be...when it began to snow the morning of my second day there I realised that not packing my thermal jacket and pants was a big mistake - what was I thinking! But a good two weeks it was....plenty of good rides in yucky weather...and the one day we did race the sun was shining - quite a blessing! We travelled to a place called Furth, near Nurnberg to race a small German race. We had 4 laps around a 16km lap - it included a 1km climb to the finish, very steep 18% at the bottom and cobbled near the top. Early in the race four of us got away, and then with a bit of team-work I was able to launch up the hill on the second last lap and solo to the finish. So two solo victories in two weeks - a great start to the year for me!