How can a trash pile hurt THAT badly?

well- it is not fair to call it a trash pile, just because it was a trash pile in a former life... the Vam Berg is a nice little grassy green hill that we climbed over 5 times today.

i had a long hard day in the saddle. i will write a race report and post it later- but the short short is that my job today was to go for the prime sprints. jim wanted me to start out with sprint jersey sprints and then work my way up to finishes. he wants me to learn how the sprints work here and build from there. so, today? it was all about the three prime sprints.

the first one was at 10 k, and i was able to take second. the second one- i did a great sprint and won the 500m mark, only to have the other sprinters take the REAL sprint from me. then, going into the last sprint, kristin gave me a great leadout- and i went uncontested... but i sprinted HARD. that lead to me being off the front. i was joined by one other rider and then spent the next 30k suffering off the front and convincing her to pull faster. she dropped me on the vam berg (we had three more times up it), and i ended up getting caught on our last trip up... 15k from the finish. too bad too- since apparently, had i taken second on the hill sprint, i would have won the climber jersey! anyway, i won the sprinter jersey and so that was awesome. it was a big deal for me and i was thrilled. more later- since it was a great team effort and i have to give it justice.

then it was back to the hotel to do laundry in a bathtub since we did not have time for the washer, box our bikes while being assaulted by mosquitos that are beyond imagination... and then pack our stuff. tomorrow, we fly to italy for a training block and then head back up here for flesche. bye!

this might be my last post for a while... i don’t think that we will have internet access down in italy.