Update!
“Yiiiiiikes!” :)
So I was hoping pictures would explain it all, a picture is worth a thousand words, but there is no footage of last weekend's races (Lady’s Berry Cher and Pujols, both French Cups), consequently I must type.
Here is the super duper short of it (but it doesn’t look so short, does it?):
Saturday I got to take the train north to meet my team; trains in France are cool, and easy. I had 3 seats all to myself.
Sunday (Easter) we raced. I had a pretty bad stomach thing going on (since last Sunday’s Circuit in Bourgogne) and couldn’t race as aggressively as I would have liked. We raced, I tried a couple of attacks, got into a few things, but nothing was successful for me.
The finish: Jeannie Longo was stringing things out, keeping it safe, with 2km to go I held my position, 5th or 6th wheel. The 2nd to the last corner was a left-hand up a little 50-100meter riser, and then another sharp left hand and about 500meters to the finish. One would think coming into those last corners 5th wheel would have been good positioning, right? Not so much. The chic directly in front of me (we were single file) opened up a gap on the last corner between us and the 3 women on Jeannie’s wheel.
I came around her a bit too late (because I didn’t immediately realize the gap was opened, she was a lot bigger than me), and dragged up the women on my wheel. Right as I was nearing the finish, I was catching the Jeannie’s little group, while at the same time the women on my wheel were coming around me. I got 6th in the sprint, 7th overall; a decent finish, considering the status of my stomach.
After that day I was tied for first in the French Cup series.
We then pulled basically an all-nighter to get to Pujols – leave the first race at 5:30, get to the next hotel at mid-night, don’t fall asleep until 2am (stomach), wake up at 6am, race at 10am.
Pujols course: A 5x17km circuit with one 500meter 6% climb and one 1km 13% climb to the finish. The finish climb was significant; it went up for a steep pitch, then evened out, and then with 1km to go it pitched up again.
On the second lap, a dog ran into the pack, the women in front of me went down, I had nowhere to go, and crashed as well (bike and body intact). My teammate waited for me, helped me get close enough to the peloton to jump to the peloton. Thank you Stephanie!! I got back into the peloton right at the beginning of the finishing climb. Again, the short of it – I couldn’t be as aggressive racing as I would have liked, my abdomen still was in poor form.
The finish, well....once again I didn’t know the finish. On the final lap, I thought we had about 6km to go, when we were suddenly diverted from our previous circuit. I was mid-pack, just relaxing before what I thought was the final bit of our final circuit. Well we were diverted, so I thought to myself, “we must be doing a longer circuit for the final lap.” I was wrong. After diverting us we had about a 100meter stretch into a right hand turn during which I let off the pedals and started observing what was going on. We made the right hand turn and I realized that this was the finish. I had about 500 meters of at least 13% climb to try to regain some kind of position, but I was way to far back, and there was already a split in the group. By the time the finish line came up, I had made up some ground, getting onto the tail end of the first group, but it was not a good finish, and I was very disappointed; another stupid mistake that could have been avoided. Live and learn. I slipped to 3rd in the overall in French Cup; I am 1 point behind 2nd place and 20 points behind the leader.
Both of the races were really great, and very well attended; 1st race 140women starting/78 finishing, 2nd race about 130 women starting/half finishing (?). The courses were incredible, the racing was aggressive.
I had so much fun with my teammates this weekend; they are getting more comfortable with English and I am stumbling over my French – but I am putting in a good effort to learn. Every day I am learning new words and phrases, it is quite fun.
I went to the doctor here in Limoux this weekend, and hopefully we now know how to pacify my angry stomach.
(Einat on our training ride before we leave for Holland)
(Me out on our improvised 3Hills Training Ride)
(Random pictures to keep your attention - nothing to do with Satan's strong hold in my stomach)
(Einat said she would still talk to me since I brought her flowers again. She was starting to think I didn't like her since we haven't had fresh flowers in our apartment for a week or so.)
(Check out the depth of this canyon.....this was a really scary descent. You do not want to know what the road looked like.)
(Small town on a cliff)
