Dorms and 6 minutes of Racing

Prologue is today.We arrived at our first destination. La Roche. Our accommodations were interesting to say the least. The race promoters had arranged for all the athletes to stay at a Sports Complex, that has a cafeteria, and dorm-style buildings. We entered our room. 6 beds aligned in a row, 4 showers, 2 toilets. Wow. Each bed had a set of sheets, and one blanket designated to it. Sweet.

 

We went to go eat with the rest of the riders. Columbia HTC. Neurenberg. Australian National Team. Selle Italia. Everyone is here. We all have our single rooms with 6 beds. All eat the same boiled chicken. All have one set of sheets, and one blanket.

Our soigneur arrived. Bonjour, Patrick. He is a big Swiss guy that speaks very little English. My French gets me nowhere with him. He just speaks German. Stacher attempted to play charades during her massage with him to explain why she had mosiquito bites. I don’t know how that worked out for her. He is avoiding her now.

Our internet is very limited, which has made it difficult to call home or update this blog. Who knew that internet was such a luxury. Sometimes you see the WiFi sign, and you may even see the router, but there is no internet. You know where there is a glimpse of a signal when you see 28 riders huddled in a corner or under a tree somewhere all with their laptops churning trying to quickly reconnect to the outside world.

About to drive for an hour, then warm-up for 1.5 hours, then race for about 5 minutes, and then cool down for about 40 minutes, then drive an hour back. All of that for about a 5 minute race. Only in cycling.

All out.

 

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