Just training

Did my first real training ride since Croatia today, the hip felt basically fine, but my legs were pretty heavy. Its amazing how much not training for 3 days can effect me. It seems like the more work I am doing in training the better I feel... recovery just makes me feel tired. Anyway, I rode up to the highest point in De, nmark today, its at a grand total of 560 ft above sea level, and the longest approach takes about 5 minutes of not steep climbing. It is quite a change from California I admit, even in Davis you can ride up Mix or Cardiac or Cantilow. All of those hills are bigger then anything here. That being said, I did find one good steep 4 minute climb, so I can still do those VO2 intervals on an uphill, which is good. The only problem is that the climb is right on the edge of a big town called Velje, so I will have to deal with traffic, but nothing is perfect.

Still the roads here are amazing, I rode for 4 hours today without seeing any stop lights. I hardly saw any centerlines for that matter. But it is definitely going to recuire some transition to learn how to train on rolling roads. Luckily I have access to motorpacing basically whenever I want so that will be hugely helpful I think, although I have never really done it so it will be a learning experience.

I have been checking out the course and past results Mergelland, and that is going to be one hell of a hard race. Four of the teams on the start list are going to the Tour and there are usually about 40 finishers from a field of 180. I can't even begin to imagine how hard the battle for the front of the peleton will be. All you can do though is show up with some good legs and stay focused. When the racing is tough I can usually get to the front and stay there so there may be some hope for me. Of course if its too tough then I don't have a hope of ever getting to the front in the first place, so you never know. Its definitely a bit more difficult having never done any of these types of races, I have no idea what to expect and I have no idea how I compare to the other rides. At least in American I know where I stand in any given race, here I really have no idea. I guess I'll know after a few months of racing over here.

No racing this weekend means that I can get a really solid block of training in so hopefully the good legs I had before my crash will come back soon. I think the story of this season is going to be... wait and see.