Alex Reports on First European Race - Drenthe

Today was our first race here in Holland, Drenthe. We arrived 2 days ago with the national team after Redlands and so not quite recovered from the jet lag, we knew today was going to be a tough day. The course was a 25km circuit of 5 laps, with 5 sprint lines per lap, 95% cobble stone, narrow and windy roads and of course completely flat.

The race started out really fast since the first sprint was only 3km into the race. After that there were some attacks that, Erinne, and Leigh were covering. At about 18km in a girl attacked into the a section with a few sharp turns, I was near the front and decided to go with her, shortly after there were 6 of us with a gap that was slowly growing. We kept a very high tempo, and since High Road missed it they were launching off girls from the main peleton to try to bridge, but nobody would let any of them go.

The tempo stayed high for the rest of the race, we never let up, the only chance i had to rest was when the girls went for the sprint lines, i just sat on to save some energy. The US team and a few others kept a steady pace back in the main peleton. When the gap was at about 3:50 and at about 2 laps to go High Road started chasing. We were all getting really tired, and a couple girls would occasionally stop pulling through which really started to frustrate a couple of the other girls. Since the gap was getting closer, (now at less than 2 minutes) one of the girls in our group attacked and nobody wanted to close it, then another girl went with her. So the other 4 of us just stayed working together about 15 seconds behind the other 2. Our group got caught at about 12km to go and they kept chasing hard until they caught the other 2 out front. I stayed near the front so I could be there for the final sprint, but with about 8-9 km to go as we entered the 1 meter wide nasty cobble section there was a crash right in front of me which i couldn't avoid! So i did a total flip over the handle bars and landed into the bushes right along side Alison Powers. It took a while to get unstuck,and fix my bike. The pack was long gone. Once i got on my bike, i noticed my radio was missing, and we were given strict instructions from Vincent before the race not to lose it! So i went back to get it. About 10 of us rode in the rest of the race together. Erinne and Leigh finished about top 25.

So unfortunately we didn't get top 12 where the UCI points are but we all got in some good hard miles in our legs! And i have to say that might have been the hardest race i've ever done... I've never held that hard of a tempo for 100km before !

We are all resting up now for the World cup on Saturday. Gina sat out today and will be racing on Saturday as well.