A rollercoaster ride

It has been awhile since I have posted a blog…I have been on the road for a couple of weeks with no internet access…so I’m not sure where to start…

Last week we had a four day tour that had two stages in Holland, one in Germany and one in Belgium. I was feeling like I finally had some good form and after a strong time trial and good climbing legs the next day I had some confidence that I had managed to get ‘good legs’ at the right time of the year. Unfortunately I have yet to perfect my stage finish and my lil sister beat me into 3rd position on GC with a great win on the last stage….better her than anyone else I think! We were pretty lucky all week with mostly good weather, a really nice race hotel and no long drives. I had one little crash on the 3rd day but it paled into insignificance when we found out that Miriam Melchers had broken her pelvis and jaw both in several places with a crash on a descent earlier in the day. I send my thoughts and best wishes to her for a speedy recovery…

From Holland we drove across to Germany for a World Cup the following day….it was the last World Cup on the program for the year, and although one of the easiest World Cups of the year in terms of terrain, there is double points on offer so this is a big one for many teams, especially if they have a sprinter with good legs on the day. It was a pretty uneventful day for me, but I stayed upright and helped where I could and that was all I was hoping for. I just don’t have the head to mix it with 120 charging girls in the last 3km….definitely not brave enough for that.

We continued on our tour of Europe, with a long 11 hr drive south to Italy to begin the 6 day Giro della Toscana. This is the last tour before the World Championships and a lot of girls use it to put the finishing touches on their preparation and make sure there is enough speed in the legs. As usual with Italy everything is a little bit crazy and chaotic…sometimes a little deep breathing is necessary. After a pretty hectic block of racing and traveling I wasn’t sure how I would go in the tour…I never had any intention of finishing, thinking that this would push me over the edge….and I was quite right. After the 1st road stage I knew that things weren’t as I would have liked them to be….I felt quite weak and lactatey, arms, legs, head….just like I could sleep for 3 days. I have a tendency to panic when such things occur but I tried to keep my calm and push on as I felt I did need another day or so of racing for the speed in my legs. 100km into the 130km stage yesterday, at the top of the 1st 10km climb for the day I decided to ‘pull the pin’….it had been raining heavily the whole stage, I blended in with the road I was so black from all the spray from the diesel covered roads, and I felt completely empty. I had dragged my sorry assie up the first climb at 150bpm feeling that it was 190bpm…a sure sign for me to get off my bike :) I changed, had an Italian style hot chocolate (just like pudding) and got some tea for the rest of my poor rain soaked team mates. This morning I took my team-mate Theresa’s car and headed north of the familiarity of Novellara. I am staying here with Barbie and Massimo until Tuesday and then Liv and I will drive up to Salzburg which is only 4 hours from here. It is great to be here in a comfortable place that I know well….tonight I am going with Barbie and her friends to my favourite restaurant for a balsalmic covered steak…Lots of rest over the next few days and I am hoping I get back the power I had in there last week…fingers crossed :)