edinburgh rc cycling club

6 days, 567 km and the worst part was the standing on the stage during team presentations on the evening prior to the start the next day. Trying to smile and stop the urge to leg it while the team manager gave a small introduction about us.  I felt relieved when he said we were a 'young' team, this helped my inner calm as i had recently turned 30 and not taken it well (despite the odd snigger and elbow in the ribs from my team mates standing on either side of me!)  This was the big target for the year. We all knew it was going to be very tuff all the UCI races had been harder this year, many folk saying this year had been particularly hard ?due to being an Olympic year.  

 Day 1;Well the first thing I have to say is thank goodness they didn't charge for going to the toilet like they do at most toilets in the Netherlands/Belgium area. As the team would have lost its budget for the next season. I was glad to see it wasn't just me either! Everything was so much bigger, a simple table to sign on was not good enough now and it involved hiking up a set of stairs to a stage with TV crews and photographers all over the place (admittedly they always looked disappointed when I turned up!)Today was a bit of a lumpy stage with hill primes.  I knew my coach had got me peeked well, so this gave me some eagerness to race and not simply participate. After 40 ish mins I started sneaking up to the front. There were attacks going left right and centre. I feel we must have added up at least another 20 odd km's with the amount of zig zag’s all over the road.  I joined in with a few but none amounted to even getting clear.  Sometimes it felt safer to push and go with the attack rather than be trampled by the mass of riders thundering up behind.  There were no ladies in this race, they were crazed devils with fire in the eyes ready to trample you and get you out of the way anyway they can.  It ended up in a strung out sprint with a nasty little incline for the last km. This caught a lot of folk out and I have now got into a nasty little habit of switching off in the final km. Thinking a bunch finish so there is no point doing risky things as we will all be classified as the same time.  However with gaps starting to open up before even realising it I was in risk of loosing out on seconds for no reason than stupidity! I put the hammer down and pushed as hard as I could to get up the line, however I still lost out by 22 seconds. 

Day2;The individual TT.  Again my warm up was spent half on turbo half on local 'facility'!  I was off about half way in the day, so I had time to cycle round the course again with two of the team. It was windy but from every direction. But this was good; the little light folk I hoped would be blown away.  I had the team manager behind me with the president of the club and another sponsor, so not ball-sing up was more important than usual.   It went as best as I could have hoped for, the heart rate was good the rhythm was there. I caught my minute and a half rider which was great for the head.  I slightly mucked up in the final km with the incline to the finish I started arseing about with gear choice (I do this, most girls can't choose which shoes go with their outfit, me, I can't pick a gear for the last 600mtrs!).  The manager was hoping for top 40, and I ended up 31st.  

Day 3;I had wanted to try something today. I didn't want to finish the tour and just gone from A to B and always playing it safe, I knew I would be disappointed by this. However it was an incredibly windy day. Plus it was a horrible course, somehow the organisation today was not as good on the in town road closures, with quite a few parked cars and traffic furniture.  It made the race nervous and jumpy which made me back off and hide at the back.  My team mates were constantly trying to push me up front but every time I got mid way it was always the side that would be getting squashed going round a car or something.  The general feeling of the team was that it was not a nice stage.  We had a bad day also in the fact that we were doing ok ish in overall team GC however a small crash involving two of our riders put an end to that with them loosing time on the peloton.  A breakaway stayed away, and I finished in the peloton. 

Day 4;A shorter day, with rain, wind and started off cold.  It started late so we finished barely able to see.  Again I told the manager I was going to go. Right from the start. There was about 1 km of neutralized zone and I reckoned about another 1km in I was going to go on a suicide mission and go. I was annoyed from the day before as I had bottled it.  So the 1km mark came and went, I moved up to the front and then all hell broke loose. Some how my cunning plan had been stolen by what seemed like everyone. Attacks again were going on every 20 or so seconds, some getting a few bike lengths ahead some nothing.  The speed was incredible. The spray from the wheels was making driving very difficult. It felt great again being up front and chasing and then trying myself. Then a very scary moment when as the peloton was together a car had managed to get by the road closures (possibly from a driveway) and was about to pull out onto the road from the right. We were hurtling down the road and i was in the front 8 as the car pulled out. Luckily the car driver put the foot to the floor and moved straight across the road into a garden.  I only think due to such high quality of riders that no one panicked and braked causing a huge pile up. About mid way i decided to start trying again.  Two riders had jumped off the front and i decided to jump over to them. I was amazed at the ease of getting across. Not easy, but not putting me into too much of the red zone. We worked together for a small while until i saw the sign for 200mts for a sprint prime. So I decided why not. Off i went. However the sprint jersey winner had capitulated herself of the peloton and managed to catch me on the line. But it was cool to get some points in the classification.  I then reckoned that everyone would ease up after the prime so i kept the head down and dug bit deeper.  I looked behind me and couldn't believe i had Vos and Judith Arndt on my wheel leading them away on a break!! If i had the breath i would have laughed. I was leading two of the world’s best!! I’m sure i saw Vos look like she was struggling to hold my wheel (!!NOT) (That or she was looking at her nails wondering if she was racing or on the erc Sunday cafe run!!) She came through and took the front and off the 3 of us thundered but alas not for long as we got pulled in not long after.After that i then decided enough of this zone 8 millarky and took it easy.  Vos went off on a breakaway but the other teams timed it to perfection and caught her in the final small local lap with only min or so race time left. 

Day 5;We were now staying in hotel accommodation for the last few days as we were moving down south.We had reckoned that today would be steady.  The top 5 or so were only separated by seconds and with tomorrow being a climbing day we thought it would be sightseeing rather than racing. And in fact that was the way it started.  The first 15kms were slower than grannies on zimmers!  I think at one point we were overtaken by the local Nordic walkers club (very popular over there). A few riders had gone off the front and i knew this would be good to go, but with the slow pace and my poor ability and small roads i couldn't get to the front.  And then about 20mins later it was like someone had flicked a switch and all of a sudden all hell broke loose. Riders were blowing up all over the road as the pace suddenly went metal into a head wind. I lost all my team mates and suddenly found myself in a much reduced peloton. It ended up with the last hour or so being very very hard. Sudden surges in pace, cobbles through the towns and just starting to get knackered.  With each of the final few smaller local laps through the packed streets it was a beautiful site to see the finish. 

Day 6;The last but worst day. I hate climbing and especially the Caulberg. (The Amstel gold finishing climb) 6 times we went up it. It was pure example of Dutch weather also. We started in sun, we had downpours we had hurricane winds and then we had 5mins of hail. I have never been so happy to be heavy and not use zipps.  At one point i think a few of the 48kg Cervelo lifeforce riders were about to be blown back to Switzerland Mary Poppins style. With every lap, the peloton got smaller and smaller and apart from a small group breaking away the main riders were all still together, until the main contenders decided to go, and with a few from each team holding the rest back we went from being down only few mins to loosing a huge amount of time in one simple lap. I climbed ok for me but for some reason i descended so poorly which is not the way i usually go.  This lost me 5-10meters on every climb; it didn't do too much damage until the last climb which we finished on loosing me about 10ish seconds from the group i was with.On the last climb on the Caulberg the manager had said to me over the radio to enjoy my last 5km of racing of 2008, my 59th race of the year.  I had a pained grin as i climbed but it was more for the fact that i knew that there was a can of Dutch beer in the cooler box waiting for me. And sure enough as i scrapped over the finish i pulled in and Erik (our mechanic) was running down the hill with the can in his hand. Who needs expensive recovery drinks when you can have beer! He even opened it for me.My team mate Heilke had rode her guts out that day and made the climbing look easy. It was only the two of us who had completed the full distance in our team.  It was such a shame that she had had a bad day previous to make her loose so much time overall. I finished 33rd overall, at + 15.56 Won by Charlotte Becker (Germany, team Nurnberger) at 14 hrs 22mins. 

So that was it, since then i have stuffed my face with food and possibly forgotten what a bike looks like. 

I’m glad the racing season is over but already looking forward to my return to Tubanters next season.I have a superb winter in front of me, with Karen and myself heading off to Spain with the Winter Workshop. A yoga/cycling holiday programme, great scenery, great accommodation and most importantly sun!  (Not that im trying to do any advertising of course but please feel free to go to www.thewinterworkshop.com (discounts always available to whoever manages to sustain the concentration/will power to read as far down as this!). 

I have also learned that you should never try a two-up on a mtb after 2 solid weeks of nothing but eating, especially with someone who finds it very entertaining to laugh at your near passing out!