Where did all the time go? Has it really been 6 days since my last entry? I guess time flies when you honestly have no idea what day of the week it is. Really, Lucca has been unbelievably relaxing, very tranquil. Actually, that’s kind of a false truth. The “estate” here is absolutely peaceful, even somewhat intoxicating with all the fresh air and smell of citrus blossoms that surrounds us, but with 9 female cyclists, 8 staff, and many other random Italians dropping by it’s anything but quiet most of the time (which is why we had to initiate afternoon quiet hours so we could take naps in peace). But this is all what makes it so much fun - we are settled into a beautiful place with good company, great riding and plenty of things to do.

This is how a typical day goes around here…Open our eyes to blue sky around 8 or so, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and fresh coffee on the veranda, peruse the internet for awhile to find out what’s happening in the world that we seem to be oblivious to right now, roll out on our bikes for training with the locals, pros (like Jorge Jaksche, Tyler Hamilton or Cipo), or our own friendly teammates, return home to eat lunch consisting of paninis with fresh buffalo mozzarella, sweet tomatoes and basil, have a little afternoon sleep, skype with family and friends now that they are finally awake, sit around to chew the fat for awhile, check emails once again in our personal cafe until dinner time, surf the net again, walk down the hill giggling all the way to the gelato shop for a sweet treat, return to our cafe for more emailing, skyping, and sending hoops and yoyo e-cards (Brooke has turned us onto to these little guys and they are hilarious), and as the moon crests the hillside we lay our weary heads down so that we can start the process all over again when the sun wakes us up to another beautiful morning.

Oh, and thrown in the mix was a race in Crema back on Wed. Italians are crazy with all the screaming and yelling they do which makes for a very high anxiety race, but we did well to get Lara a hard fought 6th place. The next day was filled with a trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower and Cathedral. Anyone who is in the area should make a trip to Pisa, although one trip and you’ve seen enough. The locals from Lucca will tell you that “Pisa is no good” but, hey, you’ve got to see this piece of architecture which began its foundation in the 1100’s…that is impressive. And then to top off the day, Pino (SRM Italia director), his wife and Tyler made us homemade pizza from the pizza oven in the basement. Each pizza was eaten as quickly as they came out of the oven until we were eventually ready to pop. It’s hard to say no to delicious, steamy pizza straight out of the brick oven as it sits right in front of your face, but at some point even my stomach had had enough. And the many bottles of wine on the table helped us all settle in to a good night’s sleep.

Tomorrow the Lipton girls are off to Parma for 2 more races while the national team girls will “race” Gran Fondo. It’s highly unlikely that we will have internet in Parma so it’s most likely it will be another couple of days before there’s another post from me.

Viva Italia!

-Mer

Our home away from home in Toscana

Our apartments

Ronde van Gelderland was full gas from the gun. And I mean full tilt, flat out, on the rivet from the word go. We raced for the FULL 140km’s. It was game on from kilometer 0, no waiting around to save the legs. It’s great, really, and it makes the racing so much safer when the peloton is strung out, especially in Holland where the roads are so narrow, there’s random objects here and there to dodge, and riders are darting every which way to take the shortest line through the roundabouts and turns. Sure, there were a few crashes but the girls know how to handle their bikes, which is a good thing since most of them have no fear and do what they want, when they want. Give them an inch of space, and they’ll put their wheel there. Don’t like to race with your elbows out? Forget about holding your spot then. Being one of the bigger girls in the peloton, I certainly have an advantage but it’s still not easy. You’ve got to like to fight. And fight like hell we did. How our legs would feel after stepping off the plane 2 days prior we weren’t sure, but we rode a fantastic race. Kristin Armstrong (she’s been here racing with the national team for a week already but today she raced in Lipton colors) put herself in the break (that would have stuck had 2 of the main driving forces not taken a wrong turn causing teams to start the chase) so we had it “easy” for 45km’s or so, but once the break was caught we hit full speed again. Since there were 9 Americans in the race between Lipton and the national team, we knew we had to work together since we were our only friends in the peloton, so to speak. In the closing 10km’s we traded turns on the front to keep the pace high for our sprinters, Brooke and Brenda. Brooke is definitely getting this Euro racing down as she rode across the line in a strong 6th place, while the rest of us rolled across somewhere in the front group of about 40 out of 200 starters - not bad. And, Brenda, this being her very first race on European soil (and her first trip to Europe period) should be stoked with her 24th place on the day - she’ll get the hang of the sprinting style here in no time. All the Americans rode a strong race and it was especially nice to have such a big group of friendly faces in the peloton.

All that being said, we did have a few unfortunate mishaps on the day. While winding along the narrow dike, somone put a derailleur in Lara’s front wheel. As she was going back for a wheel change, Thomas was involved in a car accident and never made it to her. Fortunately, Jim was 1st car so he gave Lara a new wheel quickly but she still had to chase by herself for 15kms along the dike. Lara put in a huge effort to catch the peloton, which was no small feat considering how fast we were rolling, but later abandoned due to cramping. Still, she put in a fine performance that she should be happy with. Thomas, on the other hand, came away with a few dents to the front of his car (he’s using his own Volvo to get us around this trip), but apparently there was even more damage done to the other car, so he’s wasn’t so happy. However, all in all, it was a good day that we can all be proud of and write down in the books as a hard race that we handled very well.

After all that we put our bodies through yesterday, we have been rewarded with a peaceful rest day today. We we flew in to a sunny and warm Pisa today and are now staying at the SRM/USA Cycling house in Lucca. Boy oh boy, this place is amazing! We are in a little mini paradise up on a hillside overlooking the mountains, there’s a pool in the yard lined by lemon and olive trees, planters from Napolean’s sister outline the perimeter of the house…we are sitting on the veranda taking it all in as we type away on the computers. Oh, did I mention that Mario Cipollini lives next door? Yup. He’s been making regular appearances at the house so I am sure we’ll be meeting him soon.

Soon enough it will be time to walk to the gelateria and then maybe around 9 o’clock we’ll consider eating dinner. Ah, the laid back life in Italy will suit us just fine for the next 2 weeks.

Ciao
-MM

A little pick me up from jet lag - coffee, sandwiches, juice and pastries from Thomas

Our new team car

Roads from Ronde van Gelderland

A very worn and used Dutch bicycle

So, here I am again on European soil– my first time back since this time last year, which wasn’t a great experience (basically, I sucked) so I am hoping that things will go a little better for me this time around.

Today we rode/drove the race course and all I can say is…INSANE! Although I have raced in Holland many times, re-familiarizing myself with Dutch roads is always a shock to the system. Racing on Dutch soil means you have to be prepared for roads that are laden with road furniture (that would be all the medians, posts, signs, and curbs that are inconspicuously situated at random spots along the way) and described best by narrow winding roads, wind, dikes, and bike paths. And let me tell you, no one gets through these races without a lot of luck on their side. So, keep your fingers crossed that my next entry will be telling you about how I survived Ronde van Gelderland.

Contrary to the racing here, Holland (actually, I should say the Netherlands since Holland is a province so the name does not properly encapsulate the entire country) is actually an easy country to feel comfortable in. For example, the Van der Valk hotels – they are nice, clean, they speak English, and they have an awesome breakfast buffet. The Van der Valks are all over the country so you can be guaranteed to find one wherever you go – there always seems to be one close enough to whatever race we are doing. And what might you find at breakfast to satiate your hunger pangs? Sprinkles. Yes, I said sprinkles, like the kind you, well, sprinkle on cupcakes. Here you find them in little boxes sitting next to the jams, honey, butter, and other bread toppings, which is appropriate since the Dutchies like to sprinkle them on bread, after they have coated each piece with creamy butter, of course. (Europeans like their butter, which was made clear to us when Thomas picked us up from the airport and kindly offered us Nutella and butter sandwhiches! Eek!)

And bike paths. You might not always know where you are going but one thing is for sure, you can always find yourself a bike path to get you here or there (that is unless you are too lazy to ride a bike). The paths are well marked so if you know the town you are looking for, you shouldn’t have much of a problem pointing yourself in the right direction. You might have to navigate your way through a few roundabouts and around all the Dutchies on their bikes (and there are a lot of ‘em), but with practice it becomes easy enough.

We made one shocking, new discovery today, which is that the red light district we all associate with Amsterdam is not only in Amsterdam but in some city outside Apeldoorn as well. Yessiree, we found ourselves lost at one point today and as we were taking a detour down some side road, Lara noticed several women standing butt ass naked in the windows. Lara was so dumbstruck at this spectacle that she wasn’t able to get the words out of her mouth in time to tell the rest of us to look, but then again, I don’t know who was luckier, her or us.

So, yeah, Holland is a cool country. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned stroop wafels yet. These are some tasty treats!! They are thin, round waffles about the size of your hand filled with chewy caramel (or syrup as they call it here) and they are perfect to eat during or after a race…or every hour of the day. Sad thing is, I associate these treats more with Holland than I do windmills or clogs. I guess that tells you what’s mostly on my mind…food!

I am off to dream about dodging road furniture now….

I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.

-Meredith