On Tuesday we began racing the Thuringen Rundfahrt….after the emotion of the morning it seemed a little strange to pull on the knicks but that is what we are here for…this is part of us all getting on with our lives as best as we can. It was a glorious sunny day and we had a 3.8km prologue course around Zeulenroda to contend with. It all went rather smoothly, and Kate and I broke our curse of always finishing within 10 secs of each other for every time trial…she finished 11 secs in front of me! The dry, hot air destroyed everyone’s throats and nearly the whole peleton was coughing continually at dinner….quite a shock to the system!
Clear blue skies and 36 degrees greeted us again on Wednesday for our first road stage….131km….with a profile that resembled the serrated blade of a saw I was a little nervous! Luckily the pace wasn’t on from the word go but the terrain and the heat definitely took its toll. A climb with 20km to go saw the group split, I was just behind the front but managed to scrap back on and head to the front to set some speed for our little German sprinter Gela who was climbing with ease and said she had the legs to do the job. A climb I wasn’t expecting several km’s later was nearly the end of me but I managed to scramble back on. The bunch was wittled down to 35 or so at this point so things were looking good…Senffi and I knew trying to ‘out-train’ the Univega train was a near impossibility so we did our best to keep Gela out of the wind. One of Angela’s great strengths is her ability to steal wheels and jump on other trains…and this she did with great style to get the win…Fantastic! The team is really happy….lets just hope the rest of the week goes so smoothly
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