Sunday night saw Ashleigh off to Amsterdam for dinner with a friend… . During the train ride home on Queens Day she missed Hannah when a 40 yes 40 year old man wanted her number… she now has a new name and does not believe in cell phones. Enough said. The rest of Queens Day saw a happy reunion (we hadn’t seen each other for a few hours) a base ride and Queens Day cake mmmmm. That evening we got the good news of two weeks of work. Woohoo! The catch was that we started on Tuesday, and would be picked up at 6.45 am..
So off we went early Tuesday morning in our rain jackets and overalls and over trousers, into the fields, for 10 hours of killing the wrong colour flowers with spray guns which we belt to our waists. We quickly gave our sprayers the affectionate names of “Death Wand” and “Wand of Death”. We used them to pass judgement over the flowers, killing the ones that don’t meet the standard…Oh this one is pretty…Kill it!!! Our Death Wands were filled with Death Juice, which just so happened to be round up. Tasty. Needless to say that we had a rest day, well if you call walking for 10 hours resting.
Wednesday more killing, much talk about what we would spend our money on and some intervals once we made it home.
Thursday more killing, bonding (this is sarcastic, we avoided them as much as we could) with the Polish men and motor pacing with the club boys in the evening.
Friday more killing, four coffees and a rest day.
Saturday more killing for Hannah and a race in Belgium for Ashleigh.
Ashleigh managed to weasel herself out of work on Saturday by being selected to race for the team in Belgium. So she departed with the rest of the team in the morning. The race went well she was well positioned in the bunch. Sadly after dropping her chain on the inside on the cobbles she was demoted to the 4th bunch from the second, after 15ks she was back in the third but was soon back in the 4th after the pace went on in the cross wind again and she popped. The final 30km proved to be too short to redeem the situation since the race finished with 8 laps of a 7km course. All riders not in the front of the race got pulled out. 186 starters, 35 finished. It’s rough here! In the quiet of riding back to the team bus she discovered she had been resistance training, her wheel was buckled and rubbing on her breaks. Rookie mistake. She had just put it down to having no legs thanks to all the flower field walking! But all in all a good race.
Sunday we had national race in Kempen. We did it! We raced in the bunch! not on the back of the bunch : ) Ashleigh spent some exciting time in the mud after being pushed off the curb by a backside you really wouldn’t want to argue with, and Hannah hit a curb at the wrong angle managing to get both wheels off the ground and cause a bit drama for the riders around her. The first half of the race was good, but the week and the race the day before soon took its toll and Ashleigh was soon following the race signs back to start on her own. Knowing it to be a 110km loop and having still 50km to go she decided in her ultimate wisdom to head in the direction of the start, and find a short cut. Arriving at a sign that said “Welcome to Belgie” was not the shortest way to go. Fail. Hannah had a similar experience being dropped a bit later in the race, except she discovered a Dutch girl who read the maps at the intersections like a pro to get them back at the same time as the Peloton. No one will ever know! Hehe. Highlight of the day was Hannah finding 10 euros two hours’ work right there! Boom! And having a team mascot in the form of a Jack Russell for the day.
Back to work tomorrow
Hannah and Ashleigh
