World Cup #1
Madrid, Spain
May 23, 2004

cI’m sitting in my hotel room desperately trying to stay awake. Jet lag is tough. I’m not sure whether I’m tired from the race or tired from not being totally adjusted to Europe time. Luckily the Giro d’Italia is live on EuroSport. It is fun watching cycling over here in Europe because they show the entire race. And we’re talking 5-6hrs of coverage. It’s amazing. It’s almost 5pm and the housekeeper just knocked on my door to clean my room. I was trying to tell her that it wasn’t a problem if she cleaned my room while I was working on my computer, and she was trying to tell me in Spanish, of which I know maybe five words, that she would rather I left the room for five minutes so she could clean. It was quite funny and I don’t know how I figured out what she wanted but I did. So I grabbed my book and went down to the lobby to read for 15 minutes. Now I have a clean room, there is only 30km left in the Giro and I get a massage in an hour. Yippee!

It has been an interesting three days. My bike and I arrived mid-morning in Madrid on Friday. My giant duffle bag I call “The Big Pig” did not. After spending half an hour filing a lost baggage claim, I met Waldek and our mechanic Zack outside. We drove to our hotel, about 15 minutes away. Our first project was to find lunch. The hotel is in an industrial area and the restaurants were tucked in between factories and warehouses. We picked a place that looked somewhat decent. They had a set menu where you picked one of three first course options and then one of three main courses. I chose the salad and salmon. Seemed fairly safe. The salad was iceberg lettuce with pineapple, apples, and a giant blob of pink mayonnaise looking dressing. The salmon came and my first thought was “my there is an awful lot of thick cream”. Turned out our salmon was actually a cold mushy pate. And of course there were French fries on the side. Couldn’t eat it. Sent it back. I ordered a steak that arrived so raw it could have gotten up and walked off my plate. Sent it back for some more cooking. It came back palatable and I ate it. Plus there were more French fries. And all of this cost 15 Euros which is almost $20. I keep hearing that the food in Spain is wonderful. So far I’m not convinced.

After our yummy lunch we drove over to the course. Since I had no luggage, Waldek dug out a spare pair of shorts and a jersey. I didn’t have an undershirt or job bra so I wore my cotton t-shirt that I had been traveling in for the last 24hrs. Luckily I had my shoes in my carry-on. So all was good. Waldek did a lap with me. Same exact course as two years ago. I don’t think a single thing was different. Just as we made it back to the van it started pouring. And it rained for the next 24hrs. Waldek went to registration while Zach cleaned my bike and I changed. He came back with my start number, #40 (aaagh!) and a new t-shirt. Yeehah! My only t-shirt was a little ripe from travel and training so I was more than happy to wear the new one.

Saturday morning my lost luggage arrived. After breakfast I unpacked and got organized. What a relief. All of Madrid has been a buzz about the big royal wedding. The Prince of Spain was getting married on Saturday. First royal wedding in a century and he was marrying a commoner! Gasp! First commoner to marry into the royal family in more than 500 years. They had live coverage of the wedding all day long on TV. I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff so I watched. The center of Madrid was shut down to traffic and they anticipated over a million people downtown.

Today, Sunday, was our first world cup. The course was in downtown Madrid at a giant city park called Casa de Campo. We were here two years ago. It is a beautiful park with lots of paved roads as well as bike paths and great trails. It is also quite seedy. There are hookers all over the place. And we’re not talking women sneaking around in the bushes. The women, in groups of five to six, were “advertising” on the main roads through the park, even as the race was going on. Unfortunately for them it must have been a slow day because the park was closed to all traffic. Haha!

The torrential downpour from yesterday was finished by the time I woke up on race day. I rode a lap on Saturday in a hard rain and the course was quite muddy and slippery. Racing in the rain is such a challenge so I was happy to see the sun when I woke up. I was called up 40th today thanks to my shoulder injury last year. It’s stressful being in the fourth row. I tried to sneak up on the side but got squished into the barriers just after the start. The race started with a 180 U-turn followed by a short section on the road and then onto a dirt “bike path” for 1km. There were four large mud pits in this first 1km, too deep to ride through, that squeezed the field over to the right side for twenty or so feet. When you’re racing down a double track path going twenty miles an hour and then all of a sudden you have to quickly shift to one side or the other, things can get ugly. And when you’re not in the top five it is hard to see these things coming. I knew the mud pits would cause problems so before the start I found new lines around each mud pit in the grass on the opposite sides of the main track. It worked great and I was able to pass at least two girls each time I took my “alternate” line.

After expending a huge amount of energy I made it up to the top ten by the bottom of the first climb. I paid for my efforts, however, and couldn’t hang with the leaders. I maintained my composure, knowing that my legs would quickly recover. They did and I was able to slowly pull riders back. The course had some nasty climbs, the hardest one being almost 25%. I was happy to ride it all four times. A lot of the riders had to push. I felt strong and solid the entire race. No mistakes and no crashes. I had a lot of fans lining the course thanks to a recent seven-page feature on myself that Solo Bici, the “Velo News” of Spain did. I finished a respectable eight place. I was right behind Paola Pezzo and Barbara Blatter, two major world cup riders, so I knew I had a good day. Gunn Rita Dahle won again, a Russian rider was second, Yvonne Kraft from Germany was third, Alison Sydor was fourth and then Annabella Stropparo was fifth. In my never ending quest for the Olympic team, my two biggest competitors, Mary McConnelog and Sue Haywood finished 14th and 15th respectively. So that was good for me. Not sure how many UCI points I earned today. We figured out that if all my points from all the races I’ve done so far were added to my score (the UCI is a little slow adding points) I would be in the top thirty. Yeah! Things are improving!

The Giro is over and I’m waiting for Waldek to get back from a ride so I can get a much needed massage. We’re going to venture downtown tonight for dinner. It better be good! Waldek and Zach leave tomorrow for an 18hr drive up to Brussels. I fly on Tuesday and if all goes according to plan they will pick me up at the airport when I arrive. And then it’s on to the next world cup in Houfalize, Belgium. The fun continues.

Until then.

Alison