Another weekend in Switzerland

I have just returned back to my base near Amsterdam after a great week in Italy and a beautiful but not so superb weekend in Lausanne, Switzerland.
After the World Cup in Bern I headed down to Varese, near Milan in northern Italy to the Aussie base that has just been established with a vision to be the AIS in Europe, capable of accommodating all sports and having doctors/physios/masseurs etc there full time. The weather was lovely – a sunny 24 degrees one of the days and I enjoyed some good training in the sun with the profie men and the AIS girls that were there. At this time of year the national program always has a ‘screening camp’ where the profies can come in and have their new team bikes of the season set-up properly as well as being screened and treated by our amazing physio Karin. It is a great chance to have everyone together for a few days and of course this always involves throwing a true Aussie bbq and having a few beers or wines together – all the staff and athletes. The real difference this year in comparison to past years is the sudden emergence of lots of kids. The profie men tend to use these few days as a bit of a holiday and bring the family…so wives, girlfriends and kids were all in tow….a nice family feeling.

Sister Kate came down after racing in Italy on Tuesday and I got a chance to spend a little quality time with her that I haven’t had for a while. On our recovery day we headed into Varese with Alex Rhodes, did a little shopping, checked out the city and tasted the famous or should it be infamous Italian hot chocolate – so thick that you can nearly stand a spoon up in it!

On Saturday morning we tightly packed everything into the car and headed north to Lausanne in Switzerland - such a beautiful place! The drive itself was magical, crisp blue skies, surrounded by snow-capped mountains....poor Katie got a little car sick in the back on the twisty descents but even moments like this make me think of how much I love my life and lifestyle! We arrived in Lausanne and did the usual pre-race day things, a bit on the bike, driving the course, having a stretch...nothing too exciting. We didn't start racing until 1pm so had plenty of time in the morning to get ourselves organised. I did a last minute drive of the course, which made me more scared than anything else considering that there were 17% uphill sections on cobble stones in the last 5km of the course. I love when we get a chance to race alongside the men and in this time trial 15 women head off before the men begin their final stage of Tour of Romandie. There are all the profie team buses and riders, big crowds, so many people involved in the circus that is professional men's racing. So off I went in this time trial....the first 10km was super fast downhill and unfortunately my technical skills are less than ideal...I was losing time on sections that didn't require too much grunt. I hit the hill, felt good at the bottom but then the cobbled section nearly killed me, I struggled up there in the 23 cog and had a lot of trouble trying to recover and get moving again. The last 2km of the hill was a big battle, and I finished completely exhausted. I fought to the line, rolled along then collapsed under a tree....a few people stood around me and had a stare but at that point I was past caring. I ended up finishing 9th - I was a little disappointed, I was hoping for a better one. I wasn't atrocious but not super either. Funnily enough, Katie and I were within one second of each other....this always tends to happen that we finish within 10 secs of each other, regardless of the course or who has done time trial training in every time trial we do.