Philly week (CSC, Allentown, Reading)

This has been a week of acclimatising. A new team, house, heat, humidity, as well as the usual bike racing chaos that is standard.

And it's been good. I think I am getting used to sweating as I sleep (thank Jehovah for my fan)! The team is coming together well. It always takes a little time to familiarize yourself with a new format, and style, and we are ahead of the curve!!

CSC was down in Arlington Virgina. Whew, it was hot-o-rama. Thank Ali our race was at like 10am! I can't remember too much about the race, except the results were all screwed up. They did NOT pull lapped riders and this caused havoc at the finish. Theresa finished 7th, a good first race back. I almost took her straight into a barrier at 2 to go...as I was trying to take her to the front, and my opening suddenly closed...yeah, that was AWESOME!

Allentown, again super hot. The course had a stupid kicker hill, and was a long 1mi course. Not the best team race, but good lessons learned, to build on for Reading and Philly!!

Reading, not as hot. Team really made good adjustments from what we experienced on Tues, and rode much better. Unfortunately, Theresa crashed and sustained a spiral fracture of her 5th Metacarpal (the long bone on the side of your palm, under you pinky). She's so tough, she tried to get back in, and ride...but after near missing ANOTHER crash, she saw the writing on the wall and called it a day. She's had a hard time ever since she's got back to the states! Hang in there girl, it can ONLY get better!!

Today is the day before Philly. We rode a little this AM. Man on Man it's SOO hot. I love this race. It pushes you in so many ways...the huge number of riders, the challenge of getting good position, THE WALL, the false flat after the wall (where it's flying because the front riders are now on the decent...and this is where gaps open..), Strawberry hill burns, Lemmon is over before you know it, then you have to fight to get a bottle because NO ONE slows for the feed zone. My biggest challenge is keeping a positive head on the 3 min section of the wall and the false flat over....it's a little overwhelming...all the build up...people talk about 'the wall' and just having a name makes it more scary....but it's just power!! And that I know how to handle.

This race makes me love being a bike racer! At least today, I wonder how I'll feel tomorrow.