ALISON'S WORLD CUP JOURNAL
World Cup #2 Houffalize, Belgium
May 30, 2004
Its been almost a year and a half since Ive been on the podium of a world cup thanks to my shoulder surgery last summer. But today the drought ended. I finished in second today and stood on the podium again! And boy did it feel good to be back!
Weve had a relaxing and relatively uneventful week here in Houffalize. The town is quite small and sits in a small valley in the Ardennnes (which means it is very hilly around here). All roads leading out of town, but one, lead uphill. The only flat road follows the river and was packed with cyclists all weekend. Ive been to this race something like six times now. I even have a loyal following of fans. One woman came up to me today while I was warming up on the trainer and showed me a picture that was taken of myself in the exact same spot warming up for the race two years ago. Pretty funny.
We had absolutely gorgeous weather all week. Highly unusual for Belgium. We stayed at the same hotel and even in the same rooms as all the past years. The hotel owners and staff know us well, making the stay here a lot of fun. The hardest part for me was every morning around 5am the smell of the freshly made croissants would drift up to our room. It reminded me of donuts and because I just love donuts, I always got hungry. Hard to go back to sleep for a few more hours when youre hungry.
The Houffalize world cup is one of the biggest of the summer. It is a huge event for the entire country. I think today we had over 30,000 spectators, most of them drunk. You have to really be aware of whats in front of you because sure enough youll come flying around a turn and right in the middle of the trail is a group of Belgian fans singing and waving flags not realizing they are in your way. I got pretty good at yelling at people today. Haha!
The course started right in the center of town, climbed out of town and then circled up and down the hillsides surrounding the town. We were never more than 1km from the start/finish area. Thats what makes this such a great course. The fans can get everywhere. And they were everywhere! They were probably four or five deep on the climbs, screaming and blowing those awful horns right in your face. They are so into the event! Definitely makes the race more exciting.
I got called up 8th, from my finish in Madrid, and that put me on the front row. Yeehah! The pace was super fast, as always, and I stayed in second most of the way up the climb. There was a big surge right before the first dirt road but I was able to maintain my position in the top five. I was almost seeing stars by the top of the first climb. I held my spot and went into the downhill in 4th. Gunn Rita Dahle rode away from everyone within the first ten minutes of the race. I was with Annabella Stropparo (Italy), Paola Pezzo (Italy), and Marga Fullana (Spain) most of the first lap. I was strong on the climbs and confident on all the descents. I knew I was going to have a good day. Annabella surged hard on the second lap and I was the only one of our group to stay with her. Pezzo and Fullana were dropped. How exciting was that!! Annabella and I rode together for the next two laps swapping turns at the front. With six laps ahead of us I knew that we were in for a long race so there wasnt any reason to try and drop Annabella. I was conserving energy sitting behind her. Plus I think it made her nervous.
With two laps left I decided it was time to go. I put some time on her on a tricky descent and then just opened up the throttle on the ensuing climbs. Gunn Rita was so far ahead by this point that it would have taken an act of god to slow her down. But second place was mine! I rode alone for the rest of the race, holding off Annabella, and everyone else for that matter. It was an incredibly gratifying finish. Its been such a long comeback from my shoulder surgery. And the two world cups right before my injury last year were a disaster so there was definitely a huge amount of determination to make it back to the podium.
I earned 130 UCI points today (yippee!) and now sit in third overall in the world cup standings. Im slowly getting closer to that Olympic team.
Now were off to Ft. Williams, Scotland on Tuesday. We race on Saturday. What Im really looking forward to is the great Indian restaurants they have in Ft. Williams. Last year we went out for Indian food five nights in a row! (Notice how much of my life revolves around food??)
Thats all for now. Until next weekend .
Cheers,
Alison
World Cup #2 Houffalize, Belgium
May 30, 2004
Its been almost a year and a half since Ive been on the podium of a world cup thanks to my shoulder surgery last summer. But today the drought ended. I finished in second today and stood on the podium again! And boy did it feel good to be back!
Weve had a relaxing and relatively uneventful week here in Houffalize. The town is quite small and sits in a small valley in the Ardennnes (which means it is very hilly around here). All roads leading out of town, but one, lead uphill. The only flat road follows the river and was packed with cyclists all weekend. Ive been to this race something like six times now. I even have a loyal following of fans. One woman came up to me today while I was warming up on the trainer and showed me a picture that was taken of myself in the exact same spot warming up for the race two years ago. Pretty funny.
We had absolutely gorgeous weather all week. Highly unusual for Belgium. We stayed at the same hotel and even in the same rooms as all the past years. The hotel owners and staff know us well, making the stay here a lot of fun. The hardest part for me was every morning around 5am the smell of the freshly made croissants would drift up to our room. It reminded me of donuts and because I just love donuts, I always got hungry. Hard to go back to sleep for a few more hours when youre hungry.
The Houffalize world cup is one of the biggest of the summer. It is a huge event for the entire country. I think today we had over 30,000 spectators, most of them drunk. You have to really be aware of whats in front of you because sure enough youll come flying around a turn and right in the middle of the trail is a group of Belgian fans singing and waving flags not realizing they are in your way. I got pretty good at yelling at people today. Haha!
The course started right in the center of town, climbed out of town and then circled up and down the hillsides surrounding the town. We were never more than 1km from the start/finish area. Thats what makes this such a great course. The fans can get everywhere. And they were everywhere! They were probably four or five deep on the climbs, screaming and blowing those awful horns right in your face. They are so into the event! Definitely makes the race more exciting.
I got called up 8th, from my finish in Madrid, and that put me on the front row. Yeehah! The pace was super fast, as always, and I stayed in second most of the way up the climb. There was a big surge right before the first dirt road but I was able to maintain my position in the top five. I was almost seeing stars by the top of the first climb. I held my spot and went into the downhill in 4th. Gunn Rita Dahle rode away from everyone within the first ten minutes of the race. I was with Annabella Stropparo (Italy), Paola Pezzo (Italy), and Marga Fullana (Spain) most of the first lap. I was strong on the climbs and confident on all the descents. I knew I was going to have a good day. Annabella surged hard on the second lap and I was the only one of our group to stay with her. Pezzo and Fullana were dropped. How exciting was that!! Annabella and I rode together for the next two laps swapping turns at the front. With six laps ahead of us I knew that we were in for a long race so there wasnt any reason to try and drop Annabella. I was conserving energy sitting behind her. Plus I think it made her nervous.
With two laps left I decided it was time to go. I put some time on her on a tricky descent and then just opened up the throttle on the ensuing climbs. Gunn Rita was so far ahead by this point that it would have taken an act of god to slow her down. But second place was mine! I rode alone for the rest of the race, holding off Annabella, and everyone else for that matter. It was an incredibly gratifying finish. Its been such a long comeback from my shoulder surgery. And the two world cups right before my injury last year were a disaster so there was definitely a huge amount of determination to make it back to the podium.
I earned 130 UCI points today (yippee!) and now sit in third overall in the world cup standings. Im slowly getting closer to that Olympic team.
Now were off to Ft. Williams, Scotland on Tuesday. We race on Saturday. What Im really looking forward to is the great Indian restaurants they have in Ft. Williams. Last year we went out for Indian food five nights in a row! (Notice how much of my life revolves around food??)
Thats all for now. Until next weekend .
Cheers,
Alison
