Brunswick Cycling Club

Ciao!

I had a short break after worlds, and now I’m training for the last race of the European season, the Chrono des Nations, a time trial in les Herbiers, France. This town and the surrounding region has had le Tour de France pass through many times over the years, and they’re cycling mad, so the race has thousands of spectators and a great atmosphere. They even use the start ramp from the TT at TdF, and I’m sure more than a few locals get up on it in the wee hours of the morning to imagine they’re Fabian or Cadel (but not Schumacher!)

I was 2nd in this race last year, and there are always a mixture of riders here: some who perhaps didn’t perform as well as they’d like at Worlds and want redemption, and others who are just counting the hours til they can put their bike in the garage/team bus and not think about it for a few weeks. ProTour blokes ride here also, and they were very surprised last year to hear that I wasn’t having at least 2 months off the bike to go xc skiing or drink copious quantities of Stolichnaya. Guess that’s what you do when you’re an Eastern Bloc type who races > 100 days/year.

I’m staying in a great BnB in Brunello, just 2km from the AIS base in Castronno. The rest of the Cycling Australia team is home, unpacked, and back on AEDST so I was lucky enough to have super team logistics operator, Elsa Lepore, find me some accommodation in Italia before I fly to France on Wednesday. The Lombardia weather in autumn is bellissimo: calm, no wind, no rain and 20 degrees by mid afternoon. Perfect for training. Yesterday afternoon I took a shopping jaunt into Varese to buy some gifts and do some serious people watching. A tip: no amount of heel is too high, hair too big or jeans too tight for Saturday afternoon promenading in the piazza. I was less groomed than the aged men, and I’d tried! Honestly - no tracksuit!

This year in les Herbiers will be much easier than last - I know the course, I know where I can warm up, my wonderful mother will be there for company, cheering and attracting the attentions of the race director, and there doesn’t seem to be a major nationwide public transport strike planned for the days before the race! Tres simple!

Bird

This entry was posted by B. O'Donnell on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Reports, Road, Women.