The first stage is in the books. There really is not much to write about as we enjoyed a beautiful day in Holland with temperature in mid twenties and no wind. It for sure doesn’t happen often that sun lotion is used instead of rain jackets here,  but I’m sure most of the peloton was happy to have a day of good weather to get cruising.


I said it already in the preview of this stage race that this year is so different and it is hard to get the body going or maybe it is just my old body and brain .

Our main goal of the week is tomorrow’s TTT as we can use it as a last test before Worlds, so we decided to take it fairly easy today and just try to stay safe. We all came back in one piece. Evie and me avoided a crash early on and after that the manners in the field seemed pretty good towards each other.

After the last bonus sprint at 80km, the girls got a bit motivated and attacks started. Evie was all over it after she had double checked it was ok to do something. I was happy we started to get moving and have to say I needed some leg openers as I finally woke up during that time. This morning in our meeting I wasn’t so sure where I would be, as moving out of my apartment and training last week did catch up with me, but I thought I’d give it a go.

Sprinters can be exhausted but when we smell that finish line there is normally always something left in the tank. It was the usual chaos and dangerous situations in the last five kilometers but I made it somehow and had Trixi in last kilometer to get me where I had to be. The sprint did seem to take forever or rather it felt like we were going uphill…I was stoked to hold off the others and get a win in. Now we focus on tomorrow and after that we see what the rest of the week brings….hopefully some wind and echelon action.

The last month of racing is about to start. I have been home for two weeks and that was a shock to the body. Been a busy year but good busy so that makes it easier to live out of the suitcase.
The apartment I used during the last six seasons is packed up. It took me longer then I thought…guess I was not aware of me collecting so much stuff over the past years. Back in the “Hotel MAMA” which beats any other one we stop over during the season.

Our three weeks of racing in Holland will start tomorrow. I do love going to Holland but three weeks is for sure a test. In comparison to most of my team mates I love going to Holland and try to enjoy the craziness over there. It helps that those races are mainly flat and that suits me but there is a lot more to it to be good at them. I remember a former team mate of mine coming over there and being pretty full of herself as those races were all flat and seeing some of her opponents made her think she has it all covered. It was really enjoyable seeing her mountain butt being kicked so badly and her coming home crying and not finishing the Tour. I think she changed her mind about the “easiness” of the flat races and decided to not be part of them anymore.

We will be starting Tour of Holland with the six girls who are meant to do the TTT in Valkenburg in two weeks time. The TTT on the second day will be another test for us to see what we still need to work on. The other stages will be the normal “craziness” Dutch races bring. Hopefully it will be really windy as it means the races are safer and way  more fun as it is always a challenge to make the first echelon. The last stage is ridden on the Worlds Road Race course and that is another nice test for all the girls riding the course during a race and not just in training.

We will be staying in the area after the Tour to train bit more as a team and to make really sure we will be having enough of each other before the end of the season ! Guess that will be happening now every year with the TTT being an event at Worlds now.  Think the event is really exciting and all of us are stoked it is on now. It is one of the most painful events but always really rewarding. You never win a race without the help of your team but they can never come on the podium with you so that makes winning a TTT really special as everyone gets to be up there. I think the event will be pretty close with about three to four teams in the running for the win and it will be good advertising for women cycling.

After the TTT we will be all off to join our National Teams for the last week of the Dutch Holiday. I remember going to Valkenburg in ’98 to watch Worlds and I know there will be a cycling party going on all week. The crowds will be huge and the races will be exciting as the course is just made for that. Looking forward to it!!!

Earlier in the year I came with the idea doing Leadville 100 straight after the Olympics. My ex room-mates used to go to the race year after year and I was always jealous as it sounded like so much fun. A happening in other words and I really wanted to be part of it so I convinced Specialized in the spring to get me into the race and so they did! To be honest after the road race in London I thought to myself why the F@#* I got myself into the position to ride a 100m MTB race, but looking back on it I am so stoked I made the effort to go to Colorado and experience it.

After a couple of enjoyable days in London with more alcohol then needed it was good to get going on Thursday and making my way over to Colorado. My bike was shipped out to Denver and I was so excited I went straight there to get it. I am sure the staff thought I am mental as I asked too many stupid question about the bike and what to do….as you all know road bikes are fairly easy to figure out and all of a sudden this bike with brain shocks etc is standing in front of you and all I know about it is that I need to pedal but nothing else!

I took it up to Aspen and onto the trails, which was fun as long as I was able to breath in that altitude. I started to do research online as well what I all need to for the race etc…spare parts, food and drink wise and whatever I could read up. I was starting to get nervous days beforehand as I felt like I had no clue what I had got myself into….not that I wasn’t nervous for that big race in London the week before, but at least I am in my own back yard so it was scary ! Sure enough on the one long ride I did in Aspen I got totally lost…not a good idea going up a dead end canyon and bonking to just figure out you need to go all the way back and find a way home as well…guess first lesson learned for the roadie….no gas station to just pull over and have a Coke. I made it home that day somehow.


Thursday I made my way over to Leadville as Specialized had set me up to hang with the “Queen of Pain” aka Rebecca Rush, Greg and “Spidermonkey” aka Joe. We went out on a ride and I was at least pleased to know I wouldn’t be getting dropped badly on the downhill …was avoiding to think about the 3500m of altitude for race day. I just tagged along with Rebecca all day who showed me the ropes and how it was done at a MTB race. Think all those guys got a kick out of me not having a clue what I was doing and probably looking forward to seeing me suffer badly on race day…in a good way! The vibe in Leadville was amazing…you can feel the whole town is behind the race and so many people come in to do it so it is really busy all weekend long. The race meeting on Friday was an experience I will never forget. It is so different and I went out of there being pretty pumped up.

I think I had it all kind of figured out by the time we were about to start. I am an early bird on normal days but 4am wake up call on race day is even hard for me. A couple of coffees made it better but I have to say that breakfast did not taste all that great. It was dark when we rolled around to warm up a bit and when I found my place in the starting order. Insane to think 2000 people were at the start line with me and beginning the day long torture….I really had no clue what was going to hit me. The start was a lot of fun for me and I think I moved up about 200 places as people were so kind leaving lots of room…for sure way different than in road racing. The first part of the race I knew a little bit and I knew I better pace myself but as I sprinter that is always hard. Went ok up the first two mountains and found ok group before I got gapped off a little bit and came to the powerline downhill.

They had told me it was bit steep and probably the hardest…I nearly shit my pants down there but I made it and ended up in a group with Rebecca. Now we had about 20m of flat roads with lots of wind….I over did myself a little bit there and started to bonked with about 60m to go…no big deal I thought to myself as I only had about 6h to go. And 6h it was where the first part going up Columbine hurt me so badly that I think I got passed back by the 200 people I overtook in the first couple of miles of the races. I had a bit of a problem with my bike as well but that figured itself out on the way down from Columbine and hard to believe but true I actually felt like I was recovering for the last part of the race which did last for another 3h.

To make a long story short…I finished my first Leadville 100 in 8h32 and earned me a big belt buckle (prize to finish under 9h for all the roadies who read this). My whole body was hurting and I was over eating race food.  I went back straight to the house to open a bag of chips…. passed on the beer as I knew I would have passed out. I even had to endure being called a pussy later a night as I was still suffering so badly that I only had a beer or two…people who know me know that is unusual.  Rebecca behaved like she had a walk in the park…holy shit do I have respect for those girls who do this stuff all the time. She won with a new course record and I got to say it was pretty cool being part of it and experiencing a total different side of bike riding…I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR AND GO UNDER 8H ….guess it didn’t hurt me long enough to not want more!

Thanks Specialized for making this happen!