France World Cup

Down time

I haven't written for awhile because I really haven't been doing that much....the glamorous life of a pro cyclist isn't always that exciting, even in europe. I was starting to feel a bit scratchy in the throat so I prepared for battle. I was not coming here 3 weeks early to fall prey to the common cold right before the world cups. My recipe was a steady stream of vitamin C, zinc, cough drops and hot honey green tea, sleep hours that rivaled my teenage years, cutbacks on training and sugar and a heightened spidey sense for "carriers" (the bakers and butchers with the sniffles). I got cornered into buying a loaf of bread from a girl that had just blown her nose, got the drips with her hands and then promptly picked up my loaf, cut it and packed it for me. All with an oozing red nose and a smile. Straight into the garbage. The combination of vitamin intake and heightened germ awareness seemed to work as I held steady all week, nothing erupted. 

Fellow Canucks Kelly and Brad arrived Tuesday and Norm finally got here Thursday. Finally! 

Pre race melt down

With all my down time, rested legs and my winning fight against the common cold, I was feeling  pretty good about the world cup in Lievin on Sunday. It was time to pull it all together. 

We headed to Lievin Saturday to preride the course and that is when I started to strip every shred of confidence from my head. I prerode the course and crashed into the ropes 3 X in the course of an hour. I felt like I had never ridden a bike before. I tried to shake it but the anger had seeded and then I got us horribly lost on the way home so the anger flared. We got home late and I rushed through my race prep. BUT I had a great sleep and my good mojo magic Norm was here. 

The next morning I told Norm he needed to have baked goods on the line for me. The bastard put his own spin on the deal and said that for every place I lost HE would get a bite. Crap. Race prep went smoothly until I got on my bike and went for a spin on the bike path. I ate shit on a wet wooden bridge an hour and a half before my race. I wanted to cry. 1. because I had totally stripped the skin from my shin and left ass cheek and 2. I felt like a moron. Any shred of confidence I had was gone. I ran into Ryan who promptly made fun of me for being so dirty after eating shit moments ago. It was time to preride. I went out paranoid about crashing and rode like crap. I didn't get out of my granny gear the entire loop.  But I forced myself to do another loop. Lucky for me I was behind this Italian girl who was absolutely terrified on the downhills (and she was wearing a buff - ha ha that always makes me laugh). I started to loosen up and had a better loop. Good note to end on. Get out while you are ahead.

The race

I was called up third row. In europe that means row 2.5 (if you have learned anything). I had an incredible start up the loooong straight chute. The last time I raced here there were crashes at every corner so I wanted to get clear. Third place into the first corner - pretty clear! I didn't even feel like it was an effort and I could hear the pile-ups starting behind me. The pace was pretty comfortable up front until Hanka and a few other big wigs passed us and picked it up. Here we go. Then we went through a muddy section and it was like I had pulled some voodoo magic out of my butt because every single girl in front of me hit the ground, at the same time! All five of them. And I rode right through the middle. Suddenly I was leading the world cup. Crazy. The Lievin course is super hilly and the efforts sneak up on you so I didn't try to go off the front. I did not want to blow this. Salvetat (world champion) and Hanka K (previous world champ) caught up and took the reins while I proceeded to race my guts out. I am pretty sure there was a fair amount of snot hanging off my face for the majority of the race but I held my own. I suffered in the middle but found my form again near the end to shake a wee little leech off my wheel through the last mud section. 5th place! My best world cup finish ever. Not too shabby considering I had zero confidence an hour before the race..

Pee etiquette

I was one of the "randoms" selected for doping so I couldn't really celebrate and enjoy the finish with Norm. I was whhhisked (Hot Rod style) off and sent to doping. I did the standard forms and then had to pee in a kindergarten boys bathroom (picture mini urinals, no toilets) with the woman watching me. After we were done the woman (wearing NO GLOVES) is testing the pH, practically  flinging my urine all around the office while she checks it against the standards. I am literally looking at a drop of my own piss running down her hand. Now its my urine so it wasn't really an issue for me but she would have seen 4 people in every race that day so at least 16 people's pee was all over that office so I wanted to get the hell out of there fast. She definitely could have sat in on the intro safety lecture to the pee lab at Malaspina.

I went straight for the baked goods (minus 4 bites...) AFTER a heavy dose of purell.