If you know Derrick, you know that he has a need to impersonate everyone. One of his impersonations that he does all the time is Borat saying "hi five". So for the last 3 laps of the world cup yesterday in Montreal that's all that stuck in my head as one of the girls in the group with me had this sponsor written across the back of her shorts saying "High Five Nutrition". I couldn't get Borat out of my head.
The world cup results weren't that great but I finished, and compared to last year that's a big improvement. Out of 112 starters, 62 finished and 33 of them weren't over the time limit. It was raining again yesterday morning and all I could picture in my head was last years crash at the start of the decent. As we started the race the skies cleared up but the roads were still wet and there were a few crashes here and there. I even got a chop to my ribs by rider as I told her I was moving in to avoid the gates through the start finish and she told me to F off and then gave a shot with her fist to my ribs......nice. I had a super hard time keeping my position on the fast technical downhills and flats to the start/finish line and start of the climb each lap. First 3 laps were a success on the climb and I was in the top 20 or so and on the third lap it split and I was in the top 15. Although Emma Pooley was off the front from the gun, the race was still on to chase her. The pack came back together on the downhill again and I found myself going backwards towards the start of the next lap and climb. It was all strung out and for whatever reason for the first couple laps I was so cautious in the turns as I had my rear wheel fish tale a few times and couldn't find the right breaking power. I think I was some how thinking I was on a cross bike and kept on using both the front and rear break causing the rear wheel to fish tale. Anyways we start the climb on the 4th lap of 11 and I am not in the pack anymore and ride through about 50 girls going up the climb to eventually get in the pack I pretty much finish with but I couldn't get back into the top 40. The pack that I am in doesn't want to work together so later on I get off with a teammate and 3 other girls and luckily we did as we were pretty much the last group to get to finish the race. I win our group sprint and end up 46th overall but over the time limit. The group for top 35 was just in front and we spent the last 3 laps seeing them at the turn around consistently 1 minute in front of us.
So not bad for my second WC on the road and first one I finished. I got to say thanks to all the Ottawa fans and also my parents that I had cheering for me on the climb, it was nice to see some familiar faces when I was thinking should I finish or call it a day and not dig a hole for the next two weeks of stage racing.
Speaking of digging a hole, once again Derrick's Mom and youngest nephew were sick with a stomach flu (yeah, diarrhea and vomiting, that fun stuff). This was last week and I spent all week panicking that I was going to get it. Sure enough Friday at 5 am, my stomach awoke me doing circles and I force fed myself all day on Friday refusing to throw up. I had nausea and a huge splintering headache all day and night. Saturday morning was the same thing when I ate my breakfast before the WC. I pounded it back and then the only other think I had before the race (noon start) was a power bar. I spent the first 3 laps trying not to throw up in my mouth and no it wasn't because the pace was so high. Maybe my cornering skills were slightly off cause of the nausea, who knows. Last night and this morning violent pains started to attack my stomach until I couldn't hold it in any longer and have ran to the bathroom, oh about 10 times since 8 am this morning and it is only 9 o'clock as I type this post.
So here is the thing, in the past I would just suck things up and as long as I'm not running to the bathroom tomorrow and I can physically do the race I would start the stage race in Montreal. Probably not racing to my full potential for about 3 days and then setting myself a little back on recovering for the PEI stage race that starts on next Sunday. Any advice on what I should do? My team has no pressure on us for any of these races, that was the first thing our manager told us yesterday morning before the world cup. He said "so here is the team plan for today, you guys do your best and there is no pressure or anything on you, if you have to drop out that is okay, we are not a professional team and we are just here to learn from our experiences". It was probably the nicest thing he couldn't of possibly said to us before the race and in turn we probably had our best results yet for the WC from the team with 3 of us finishing but over the time cut.
So let me know on any comments or thoughts, I guess it all depends on how long the running to the bathroom lasts and how much food I can keep down to day to recover from yesterdays race and prepare for the next two stage races. I did weigh myself this morning to find out I have lost almost 5 lbs in 1 day........not good. Should I skip out on the stage race that starts tomorrow in Montreal and ends on Thursday and be fully ready to go at PEI next Sunday, or suck it up and do them both?
I talked to Derrick last night as he is at the Charlevoix GP, he finished 5th in the TT yesterday only 2 or 3 seconds off of second and 13 off of first, so he will start the road race today and be in full contention of winning the race. I wish him all the best and will be thinking of him all day. I know his stomach was doing some circles on Friday as well, hopefully he was stronger than me and isn't sick today.
NCE
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