Bates Happy Tour of Sweden

First two photos from CJ Farquarhson (www.womenscycling.net). In the TTT I am 5th in line.

I am back in Germany after a really nice week in Sweden. We were blessed with great weather, good hotels, nice little town near by and close proximity to a lake for a bit of swimming. Unfortunately my health is still not 100%, but my time in Sweden did allow for some good recovery and some gentle rides. I sat out the World Cup on Wednesday in favour of some more days of recovery. I knew that there was little chance I would have had any form after several days off the bike, however it is always hard to stand and watch the racing! I did some time in the feed zone, feeling quite accomplished if anyone acutally took something from me, enjoyed the sunshine and took some photos of the 'decorations' on the climb. As I was strolling around taking photos, some of the girls from my team commented that it looked like I was making a 'Bates Happy Tour of Sweden'...hence the name for the blog.

All in all, it was another successful block of racing for the team. Kori Seehafer had the biggest win of her career, taking out the World Cup on Wednesday for the team. She was in the 'right' break, attacked it at an opportune time and then won the sprint against team Columbia's Kim Anderson. Of course she was stoked, as was the team....and the atmosphere in our room was decidedly brighter from this point on. Our other race in Sweden was another World Cup, but this time a 32km Teams Time Trial. As stated in my previous post, this is quite a specialised event...and lets just say that we used it for experience for the young girls in the team. My body was quite shocked at what I was asking from it after a week and a half of nothing too strenuous. I got through it, our performance wasn't too shabby and we all learnt a little something.

Now I am home for several weeks...I am trying to get some uni work in in the early part of this week so I won't feel so guilty if I spend the next weeks solidly watching the Olympics.....I can't wait!!