2008 Blogs
I've turned myself so inside out that I'm now outside in. After five days I was able to accept that everything is just tired and probably will be for the next five days. After day seven forget the pain and just be. Day nine and everything has lost all meaning. I feel gone baby gone. Yesterday almost cracked me but sometimes hitting the bottom can propel you back up, at least for one more day. It's like being in the middle of a seesaw, one leg on each side - whichever leg fails you, the opposite way you will fall.
Today's race was 119km, starting and finishing in Bram. Within 7km we hit the first climb. Gina surfed through the bunch like a turbo charged minnow, ensuring that Erinne and Christine were in good position as we wound through town and through roundabouts. Up the 2km climb my focus was surviving, so I was relieved to make it to the top attached to the bunch. With this sigh of relief came a gust of wind and my gasping of a very bad word. Cross winds came shooting in and the field was strung out 3km down the road, and I was off the back cursing deep inside the pain cave. I mingled my way through the caravan and eventually caught back on, panting like a sun baked puppy. I then looked down a switchback to see Erinne busting a move off the front. Webcor green is marked with a bulls eye on our backs so Christine's and Erinne's attacks today were quickly reeled back in.
Next, Adrie Visser of DSB attacked solo. No one put in much of an effort to bring her back because she was 40 minutes behind on GC. We gave her about 3 minutes and left it at that for the majority of the race. It was a steady pace until about 70km when Adrie's gap quickly vaporized. Christine found herself toward the back, saw a split developing and put in an enormous effort to bridge the gap to the front group. At about 75km the split had formed and no caravan mingling could bring me back to that lead group.
For a bit we had the front group within shouting range, but the gap continued to grow without a bridge. There were little attacks in Christine and Erinne's group, which were silenced by High Road's Judith Arndt and Linda Villumsen. They kept the pace hot until stepping aside for Ina's sprint finishing win. Erinne and Christine finished their 9th day strongly in the front group of 37. My group came dabbling in about five minutes behind. Gina finished with a smile, free of crashes until tipping over on her way back to the van.
MUCH better day today. One more day. My plan for tomorrow is to keep pedaling forward.
Picture green rollin'
Today's race was 119km, starting and finishing in Bram. Within 7km we hit the first climb. Gina surfed through the bunch like a turbo charged minnow, ensuring that Erinne and Christine were in good position as we wound through town and through roundabouts. Up the 2km climb my focus was surviving, so I was relieved to make it to the top attached to the bunch. With this sigh of relief came a gust of wind and my gasping of a very bad word. Cross winds came shooting in and the field was strung out 3km down the road, and I was off the back cursing deep inside the pain cave. I mingled my way through the caravan and eventually caught back on, panting like a sun baked puppy. I then looked down a switchback to see Erinne busting a move off the front. Webcor green is marked with a bulls eye on our backs so Christine's and Erinne's attacks today were quickly reeled back in.
Next, Adrie Visser of DSB attacked solo. No one put in much of an effort to bring her back because she was 40 minutes behind on GC. We gave her about 3 minutes and left it at that for the majority of the race. It was a steady pace until about 70km when Adrie's gap quickly vaporized. Christine found herself toward the back, saw a split developing and put in an enormous effort to bridge the gap to the front group. At about 75km the split had formed and no caravan mingling could bring me back to that lead group.
For a bit we had the front group within shouting range, but the gap continued to grow without a bridge. There were little attacks in Christine and Erinne's group, which were silenced by High Road's Judith Arndt and Linda Villumsen. They kept the pace hot until stepping aside for Ina's sprint finishing win. Erinne and Christine finished their 9th day strongly in the front group of 37. My group came dabbling in about five minutes behind. Gina finished with a smile, free of crashes until tipping over on her way back to the van.
MUCH better day today. One more day. My plan for tomorrow is to keep pedaling forward.
Picture green rollin'