We learnt that most places here will only employ either Dutch or Polish people, turns out Ashleigh isn’t particularly good at pretending to be Polish. But it was worth a shot. We are still jobless, but we have some “spectacular ideas”. Any donations would be welcome.
Monday was horrendous. We went for a base ride that consisted of more wind than Glengary has hills, much moaning about the wind, much cold, much moaning about the cold, a lot of hunger since we went through several muesli bars and bananas in the first hour, and much moaning about the hunger. But we did finish with much sugary tea, which made everything better after we had had a litre each. Ashleigh is still struggling with a milk addiction, while Hannah has had to resort to a 1:1 Cookie to Core exercise ratio.
Training for the rest of the week was good though, with some hard efforts proving to be worthwhile once the gun went off racing over the weekend. On Saturday we trucked down to Strijen for our first experience at a National race for any women not on professional contract. We went with a team car, and had a mechanic and everything! It was super exciting!
With 151 riders on roads barely 2 meters wide, this is where the chamois shit happened. The 3 crashes in the first 10km were good for the nerves; it was enough for Hannah to seek the safety and warmth found inside the car. Ashleigh lost her nerves a bit too, and decided the safest place to ride 78 of the 88km, was TT styles in the gutter behind the front peloton. After an average little more than 40 for the first two hours (Could we have a gender check at the front of the peloton please?) She rode home the last 10km with a group just off the back of the race. Only 78 girls finished the race.
It all turned out ok though because I’ve got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine. The adventure and the experience are keeping us in good spirits as we continue to learn and discover life in the Northern Hemisphere.
We raced again on Sunday. It was a toasty 6 degrees, pouring with rain and by the end we were muddier than after cyclo-cross in Eskdale. Ashleigh pulled the pin after 50ks and was found sulking in the van wet and cold and a little bit sick. Hannah decided that fighting it out for a spot in the echelon was easier than a face full of gutter and toughed it out to finish third. She came home with next week’s coffee shop funds.
We better go; we have run out of cookies and milk. We will have to wait until it warms up and we stop wearing about 6 layers to find out if we have actually gotten really fat, we live in hope that it’s just the clothes.
Ashleigh and Hannah
