The race was a good two hour drive away on the other side of Zurich in a town I don't remember how to spell the name. Shannon and I met all of our awesome teammates- I'm very excited to race with them this summer. It was freezing cold at 12* C and it started pouring buckets as soon as we left to warm up. We all hid under a bus stop to wait out the worst of the rain and the hail and then we jetted back to where the cars were so we could get the wheels switched from carbon to aluminum wheels. The staff of the team is ridiculously helpful. The rain was a bummer not just because it was rain and because it was cold rain, but because Shannon and I were eager to try out the ridiculously light carbon wheels Bruno had given us to use. I seriously think it made my bike 5-7 lbs lighter.
By the time we got to the start, it had stopped raining and the sun was shining, although the roads were wet. Only 10 girls showed up, 8 of which were us. The course was weird in that we had to go over curbs and that the path was about as wide as 2/3 of a car lane in the U.S. We made the race hard by attacking over and over again. Kriteriums are different here in that its like a points race on the track with sprints for points every 5 laps and whoever has the most points at the finish wins (so not necessarily the one who wins the final sprint). The last laps, the points are doubled. It was fun attacking and going off the front for a bunch of laps and getting points. We pretty much raced each other and then once breaks were set, we worked to make sure the girls on the other team didn't get spring points. It was fun. It was pouring by the end and we were freezing so everyone jetted off the the showers. Its' so nice having showers at all the races. You get to go home feeling all clean instead of nasty.
It's funny with neither them or Shannon and I knowing each other's languages perfectly. There was a very funny mix up yesterday. Fabienne crashed when a kid ran into the road during the race (she's okay), and she was telling Shannon and I how an attractive guy was trying to get her to go to the cemetary and Shannon and I were very confused. She meant the medical tent. Hehe. We do lots of the same though, except we pick up much less right now :-) I am amazed at how much we've picked up in just these past six days. I'm sure I'll pick up more at an even greater rate once I'm at Jessi's in Wichtrach.
Today we're talking a tour of a local cheese factory here in Emmental, since it is an off-day. It should be good. I think I'll get pretty cheesed-out today since we already had fondue for lunch ;-) I guess what we had was called farmer's fondue because we stuck other stuff in it like meat and pickles and bananas. Well, its time to go...until tomorrow!
From the TT in Luzern Tuesday
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