It was a long time since I updated here… After Denmark I had 9 days at home without racing, it was nice to have a weekend off, the first one since I came back from South Africa. Last weekend I went to Spain with my UCI team Alriksson to do our second world cup this season. We all flew there since it was too far to fly for just one race. It was nice to be there and get some real summer heat again, it was a while ago… Was also nice to see some of my South African competition there as well, Lynette Burger and Ashleigh Moolman from Toyota cycle lab was there riding for Lotto ladies team.
On my birthday it was time for the race. It was a relatively flat race but it got hard from all the attacks. My legs were just not with me and I felt a bit powerless. On one climb the bunch split and I was in the second bunch but the bunches came back together. Approaching the finish the bunch was chasing 3 riders in a break away but could not catch, so they finished 1 minute ahead of us. Unfortunately there was a crash 800 meters before the finish, I was behind it so had nothing left to sprint for. So I came in as number 45. Not happy with the result or my legs but it was ok to at least be in the bunch.
Straight after the race we flew to Brussel, stayed over and caught a flight back to Sweden the next morning.
I am now at home and this time it will be for a full month!! The only time this year I think… During this month I have 3 races but they are all at driving distances so I don’t have to travel and stay the night. One of them were yesterday, a time trail just south of Stockholm. I did that race as part of my preparation for the Swedish champ the week after next. I came second in the race. So my next race will be the Swedish TT champs shortly followed by the road champs where I will try to defend my jersey!
Right now I am actually missing South Africa more then I thought I would, it is about SA on TV everyday and of course everyone is talking about the world cup! All I hear about from friends is the vibe and the vuvuzelas:-) I really hope Bafana Bafana does well and that the world cup is a great success for the country. I was a bit surprised when a newspaper phoned me to interview me about the soccer in SA and did not want to talk about cycling:-)
At the airport in Sweden, on our way to Spain
Training the day before the race in Spain
Teamfeeling in Alriksson GoGreen
Break
Carbo-loading at McDonalds
Team presentation at the world cup
The start of yesterdays time trail outside of Stockholm
Me, Sara and Madde on the podium after the time trail