I want to start this first news update of 2011 by wishing you all a Happy New Year!
I had a good festive season with friends and lots of cycling! After having a full year in 2010 without one single day of sickness 2011 started with a tummy bug. On the sixth day of nausea I had to go to the doctor and get antibiotics. This was during the week leading up to the first race. Other then that the training has been going really well and I am looking forward to a new year with lots of new challenges. One is to do some mountainbike races!
The first race of the year is the Cape Cobra in Cape Town, one of the hilliest races around here with the finish at the top of Ou Kaapse weg. The rules in cycling in South Africa has changed and they have put more groups together, so what they call category 2 is Vets, Masters and Ladies, so from now on we will do all our races with the Vets, something that I am very positive to. That means that racing will be harder for me and also better training.
The Nashua Cycle lab team was here with a full squad and after the first hill it was that team and me with the front group. I felt good on the first few hills but by the time we came to the second last hill my energy started to vanish and I felt a bit flat. On the last 4km climb up to the finish I had to let the group go and I finished 4th after 3 of the Nashua girls. I am still happy with my performance being able to stay with the front vets for so long considering I was sick in the beginning of the week. So this was a good opening to the new year.
Now there will be races every weekend and I am really motivated and looking forward to it!
