The invention of the house, sun shiney days and Rockstars.
First off we would like to send our love and prayers to Holly Atkins and her family. We hope you heal well, and quickly! We are thinking of you, let us know if any Euro goodies can help. xxx
So another week has passed us by, how time flies when you’re having fun!
Monday certainly provided its fair amount of fun, after a bit of a lazy morning we hit up some 30/30s. We found a new way to play this game where one rider goes and the other waits, and then as they finish their effort the second rider jumps. It’s a pretty neat game of Cat and Mouse, or sometimes Leap Frog. (Depending on who has the legs). We pick the mouse through the very fair method of paper scissors rock. Of course. J We then had a lazy evening lying in the garden, stretching and gossiping away, as per usual. We took ourselves on an adventure on Tuesday, using the number system to find a new training loop around the lake of Amstelmeer. It’s such a nice circuit, and actual takes us away from the traffic lights and confused tourists for a while. Believe it or not! Why has no body shown us this before?? The highlight of the day was a very philosophical Hannah talking about how everything has been invented by someone “you know, it’s crazy how at some point everything has been invented, even, like, houses”. Ahh, han, you don’t think that maybe people started in caves, and then add to them and they made mud huts with sticks and things and eventually there were houses? It really was a golden moment.
We let loose our inner rockstars on Wednesday, riding to a town just outside of Amsterdam for a crit. We went via Harleem so to avoid having to actually navigate through A’dam itself, and clocked up a nice 85km pre race. The race itself was awesome, a fairly long round at 2.2km, with 80 or so riders of mixed age, ability and gender. It was all on from the gun and Ashleigh managed to slip herself into the first move, lasting about 4 laps before they were shut down. After that it was all about staying up the front of the race, and with one or two laps excluded, we were very successful. At one point a break went and Ashleigh jumped across to a wheel in no mans land, on seeing this, the real nice guy swung across the road and left her in the gutter, jumping across on his own. Well! When Ashleigh also finally made it across on her own, guess who lost his spot in the echelon! Ha! Yea, that’s right, don’t mess with us. Hannah practised her leg speed, having cable issues restrict her gears. Because of this and, some miscommunication the lead out failed at the end of the race; but at least Ashleigh got to have the result instead. We won just enough to top our funds up for a train ticket home. sweet! A brief shower and some muchies and we were whizzing our way home in cheerful, if somewhat sleepy, spirits.
We had to part ways on Thursday. L Such trauma called for a Vodafone top up so we could send each other many txts while we were apart. Ashleigh was off for the ParkHotel Valkenburg Hill Classic, in Limburg. She got to drive the team bus, a very sweaty experience! Stress levels were maxed! And spend the night in our team sponsor hotel, very flashy indeed, 5 course meal included. Hannah had her bicycle fixed and had a wee wander around the shops. Going for some intervals in the evening.
Friday was race day! Yahooo! I was warned about Dutch girls not being able to climb, that they would stop on the steep hills because they were scared. Righto. Be. Up. The. Front. I managed to be there for the first 20k or so; we had a 35km loop followed by four 12 km loops. The first loop covered about 5 “big” climbs, big by Dutch standards and the little loop took us up two bergs, meaning “mountains”. They were only about 1/1.5 km long but at 22% in parts they certainly took their toll on the bunch. Any way long story short, I let myself slip too far down the bunch between two of the climbs on the big loop, trying to get past 160 riders on a road as wide as a driveway is pretty difficult, and I once again found myself in a bunch too far from the front, and pulled out on the 2nd little loop. Rats. Things are improving though, particularly confidence in the bunch, so I’m generally pretty happy. Besides, how far up the bunch can you hope to be when you are on the start line next to Emma Poole and Mariana Vos? Haha. One day I’ll be there. Hannah got to enjoy the sunshine at her own pace, going for a ride with a friend back in the north.
Saturday we got up and got on the bikes, getting home from training around 9, to be fair it was a pretty easy, very short recovery ride. One of those guilt free effortless days.. ahhh. Bliss. We then donned summer dresses, because we could, and went for a walk in the direction of the beach. A browse through the shops saw us purchase a kite for 2 euro, which we then attempted to fly in the Dutch wind. Quite a challenge that one. Eventually we managed to get Bert into the air, very brief as it may have been. He soon plummet with great speed towards the ground. Bert now needs fixing. Sunday was very much a repeat of Saturday, except instead of flying a kite up to the highest heights we lazed on the beach getting a head start on those tan lines, and even went swimming in the sea.
Race day again today, although we don’t start until 2.30 and so don’t leave until 12.30.
Dooi!
Ashleigh and Hannah
