Sweating in Sweden

I am writing from the Swedish town of Alingsas, a nice little town about 50km from Gothenburg. I haven't had the last two weeks I had planned, my body hasn't bounced out of the last block of racing as well as I would have liked and I have been battling with trying to get it on track. I had to pull out of Thueringen Rundfahrt last week, the husky voice courtesy of the laryngitis I seemed to have picked up hasn't been able to do me any real favours.

But despite sickness and fatigue, here I am in Sweden hoping for a small body miracle (I'm trying not to greedy, just a semblance of form would be nice). It is a nice place to be and we're here for 5 days, we have a World Cup road race on Wednesday and then a World Cup teams time trial on Friday. This teams time trial business is always interesting without practice; it requires, of course, strength, speed and skill, but more importantly a co-ordinated team where the riders can use their strengths to the benefit of the team without letting their weaknesses surmount any strengths they bring. It will be an interesting day! In a sport where there is often a whole team performance leading to an individual's result, this our chance to really have a team 'result' in the more traditional sense of the word.

After this block it is home for a bit of recovery and to get my body working in top shape again. I have done so much racing in the last few months that my hard training days have been few and far between. It will be good to get back into a rhythm (at least until I get restless enough to be back on the road). I will be 'home' in Germany to watch lil sis compete at her second Olympic Games....I am saddened already by the thought that I won't be there to watch as I have tried to be at as many big events of hers as possible over the years....luckily I will be there in spirit and there are many other Bates's travelling across the seas to support (visa permitting!).