Filming advertisements and racing in Europe again!!
House late March
Life has been a little busy since arriving home to Italy just over one week ago.
I enjoyed 4 days training at home and I must say it was absolutely gorgeous; I was riding under clear blue skies in 15 degrees, short sleeves with walls of snow lining the roads! It was so nice to be home, so sad to pack my bags again just after settling in!
It was a tough decision but I decided to drive my new CR-V to Belgium (13hr drive). I like to drive, not the smartest decision with races soon approaching but I had a new car, bikes to transport, lots of tools (love tools), rollers, a suitcase full of personal spare parts and a month on the road- so I wanted my Honda in Belgium 🙂
Alleghe Frozen
A day after my arrival in Belgium and a recon on the Flanders course I was committed to filming a Honda advertisement in an exotic location called Champaluc (Italian Alps). So I was flying back to Italy for a day of filming. It was a very interesting concept where two cyclist, Veronica Andreasson and I were racing two freestyle skiers down a mountain, in the finale the skiiers jumped a Honda CR-V!! I’ll hope to upload the two minute film on my site next week.
It was then back to Belgium with a few days to rest and turn the legs over before the racing started. Unfortunately during these days training in Belgium I was hit with another harsh dose of allergies. I’ve always suffered in Belgium during April but this was by far the worst reaction yet. It hasn’t rained here for a while and the sun has been shining; I hear the past two days have been record high pollen counts/readings.
Rash!
My symptoms include an ugly rash all over my face and body, tiredness, itchy eyes, nose, ears and throat, elevated heart rate etc…. not to mention the ridiculous lack of power on the bike!!
As a commitment to our Flanders team leader- Ludivine Henrion (Belgian) I started Flanders and rode near the front until the hills started, soon after that Ludivine rode away with Sarah Duster (German- Nederland Bloeit). I watched the race from the car with my ugly rash and wow- was it exciting!! Ludivine and Sarah were away for 50km with a handy two minute lead with 20km to go… for a long time it was looking like another Flanders win for Lotto Honda, ok- maybe we were getting a bit too excited too early, they were caught inside the final 10km LLudivine still finished a very respectful 8th place after such atough day!
House in Distance
The following day (today- Monday) was another UCI race; GP Dottignies. I was advised not to race due to my severeallergy symptoms but being a true racer, I wanted to try my luck on a course which was much more suited to a sprinter. I woke with the feeling of knivesgoing into my legs (another allergy symptom- aching muscles) and continued to experience this feeling on the way to the start of the race.
With the committed support from Vicki Whitelaw I managed to make it to the finish and take 4th place- a disappointing result in any sprint but I need to convince myself to be satisfied under these circumstances. I really pushed my body to its limits to get those few UCI points! The allergies cause higher heart rates, check out the data from todays race;
Passo Cereda
2pm.128km. 3hrs25mins. Average Heart Rate: 179bpm. Max Heart Rate: 207bpm. Calories: 2913.
I’m off to Holland on Wednesday to start a four day tour and my director assures me that I wont have allergies there! Holland here we come! It will be nice to race without these restrictions!
I’ll post another update after the tour- hopefully with a podium picture! For now, I’ve attached an ugly rash photo and some more glamourous shots from training at home last week!
Alleghe Lake