World Cup #1
Madrid, Spain
May 15-20, 2002

Hola todos amigos!
Now I know about ten words in Spanish to go with the twenty French words I learned in school. We just spent five crazy days in Madrid. The world cup was in a huge city park just five minutes from downtown called Parque del Campo. The most interesting thing about the park wasn't the race course but all of the prostitutes. I have never seen such blatant and overt sexual advertising as I did in that park. There were women walking on the street next to the start/finish line with hardly any clothes on. The further away you got from the course, the less clothes the women had on. And they were there all day long, hundreds of them. Like one every ten feet, no exaggeration! By race day the police had cleared them all out.

Our hotel accommodation was in the heart of the city. Only a five minute bike ride from the course. Traffic was horrendous so we were super lucky to be able to ride back and forth by bike. Our first night in the hotel was incredibly noisy up until about 2am. Madrid's soccer team, REAL Madrid had won a huge match and the whole city stayed up to celebrate. It was unbelievable. Thank goodness for ear plugs.

The course was super fun. Lots of quick up and down, nothing technical and the track was fairly smooth. I counted eleven climbs per lap. So when we were told we had to race five laps I immediately thought of the fifty-five intervals I would be doing. Aaaagh!

In 1994, the last time they held a world cup on this course there were 45,000 crazy fans that showed up. Yikes.

We raced at 11am. Later than usual I think because most people in Spain stay up till 1-2am and then don't get up until 9am. So everything was pushed back. I had the #6 start number, my finish in the world cup overall from last year. Not bad, still in the front row. The start was chaos. Super fast, lots of bumping and pushing. Everyone wanted to get in front before the first climb. I was pushed into a couple of bushes going around turns. Luckily none of them had thorns or thistles.

Marga Fullana immediately took off by herself. No one can stay with her. A group formed behind her of six of us. Alison Sydor, Sabine Spitz, Gunn Rita Dahle, Caroline Alexander, and Annabella Stroparro. We rode together for the next three laps. We weren't really working together to catch Marga. I think we all had decided that we were racing for second place.

I felt strong and comfortable most of the day. After 3 1/2 laps I attacked before a super steep climb. I was able to ride all of it and I think the riders behind me struggled somewhat because after that climb I had a gap on the group. I rode like crazy and was able to make it stick. And then suprisingly Marga Fullana started coming back. At one point I was only 20 seconds behind her. Kind of suprising. I guess she went out too hard. I was never able to get any closer, however. I held on for second place with Sabine Spitz in third, Caroline Alexander in 4th and Alison Sydor in 5th. I was really happy with how the race went. I am trying to win the overall and this was a great way to start.

Next week we race in Houffalize and then it is home to Colorado. Hope everyone is healthy and happy. See you in a week!

Adios!
Alison