WOOO. SO stoked for race day! It was a blast. We didn't get to go over to watch the Junior boys unfortunatley, but Matthias won Amateur so it was awesome for him. We started 5 minutes after the Pro Women, so it was a little intimidating.
We were pretty much the only ones warming up on the road, without rollers, umbrellas and full blown massage to warm up :)
The start was less intense than I thought it would be, but at the end of the first straightaway, we turn on this bridge, and I got elbowed in the stomach. I had the choice of crashing into the river, or just plain crashing, so I kinda tried to slide over. This was a mistake, as people ran me over and someone kicked me in the head. All I could hear was Kevin SCREAMING on the side.. GO MEGHAN GO GO GO!! Ugh of course then I had a terrible position, with the moto right behind me, but I kept going. 
I began to feel really good, but I didn't really pass anyone until the start of the first lap. The rest of the race was definatley an adventure, and when the pros started lapping us.... wow, they are SO fast! I was just really happy to finish- I wasn't lapped! I wasn't last! I was stoked! :D The rest of the girls did well, Alicia killed it, coming in 9th and even winning some money. It was awesome to see an American do well!
We sticked around to watch the pro race, as my hero of life Julien Absalon was there- OMG. :D
I was so excited! Kevin and the rest of the boys were racing so we were running around the course like mad. 
Linnea, Ellen and I had a blast riding along side Julien up the climb. He was so cool about it too. 
We tried it with the boys too, but most didn't like it! Poor Kevin had to drop out because of an injury :( but the rest of the boys did pretty good for racing in pro. My favorite part of the day was our picture with Julien... I know we pretty much stalked him to get it but I was stoked! :D
After the race Connie drove us to France for the opener of a big road race. It was an entirely different world over there, as the roadies lifestyles are completly different from mountain bikers. There were huge busses for each of the teams, equipped with everything a cyclist could ever need. It was also cool to see Contador start the race- even though I am not an avid roadie, he was amazingly strong and won the opener easily. In the end we were happy with how the day went and we all went back to the house and got some much needed rest.
Day 12- VELODROME
After race day, normally I would take a day off, or just go for an easy ride. Instead Connie took us down to the World Cycling headquarters to ride the Velodrome. I have ridden the Colorado Springs velodrome several times, but this was much more exciting! We were in Europe after all and we also had the opportunity to ride with the World record holder, and Olympian Sarah Hammer. She was amazingly strong but we were able to hang with her on the warm up :) After countless laps around the track, the kids began to do hot laps... Kelsey had the fastest out of us all, but no one was able to break Sarah’s record :)
At home, we finally began talking to our neighbors, the Rabobank team. They had some amazing riders on their team and were hilarious with their inflatable pool in the front yard.
No comments:
Post a Comment