Sunset over Grand Traverse Bay, Saturday around 9:30pm. Yeah, believe it or not I do notice stuff like that.The Leelanau Peninsula area of Michigan is the world's largest producer of cherries - it was amazing to see grove after grove of trees in full blossom. Equally amazing was the amount of dandelions, mosquitos and other annoying bugs that call the area home. I was totally clueless about how much irritating 'stuff' was floating around in the air up there! I am an asthmatic/allergic person and had no idea going in what I was going to have to deal with. Our hosts, Vic and Jean Peterson, made us all feel welcome for the weekend in their Sutton's Bay home.
We'd assembled a team of 4 for the UCI sanctioned Tour de Leelanau on Sunday. Anne, Yukie, Lori and I were representing in a super strong field of approximately 50 women. The course was close to 70mi long with at least 80 turns, 4 KOMs and 4 intermediate sprints on rolling to hilly terrain. Pavement was all pretty decent - we were able to preview some of the course on Friday and were pleased with what we saw. We rolled Saturday morning for a short pre-race ride during which I'd experienced some serious shortness of breath/difficulty breathing. Since I was satisfied with the power numbers I was seeing, I shrugged it off and figured I was just tired or that I needed to just HTFU.
We shoved off to a slippery start in some rain that saw a few near wrecks before we even got through the first mile. Temps were warm and there was some wind but the sky eventually cleared which made for really good conditions. I knew we were in for a long, hard day - the pace was fast and there was a lot of action at the front very early into the race. I saw incredibly strong riders get off their bikes, sit on the street and wait for their team cars to retrieve them.
I put my head down, stayed focused and the miles rolled by before I noticed that I was wheezing a bit and (of all things) yawning!! I progressively started to feel like I had an elephant sitting on my chest and before long was having an extremely difficult time breathing - I'd not taken any medication before the race and the cherry blossoms and other assorted irritants were really getting to me. I don't have a therapeutic use exemption form on file for UCI racing - if I'd taken my meds and gotten selected for doping control I would have tested positive for a banned substance and received a 2 year suspension - not good. Eventually I crawled into the team car and watched things play out to the bitter end.
We'd assembled a team of 4 for the UCI sanctioned Tour de Leelanau on Sunday. Anne, Yukie, Lori and I were representing in a super strong field of approximately 50 women. The course was close to 70mi long with at least 80 turns, 4 KOMs and 4 intermediate sprints on rolling to hilly terrain. Pavement was all pretty decent - we were able to preview some of the course on Friday and were pleased with what we saw. We rolled Saturday morning for a short pre-race ride during which I'd experienced some serious shortness of breath/difficulty breathing. Since I was satisfied with the power numbers I was seeing, I shrugged it off and figured I was just tired or that I needed to just HTFU.
We shoved off to a slippery start in some rain that saw a few near wrecks before we even got through the first mile. Temps were warm and there was some wind but the sky eventually cleared which made for really good conditions. I knew we were in for a long, hard day - the pace was fast and there was a lot of action at the front very early into the race. I saw incredibly strong riders get off their bikes, sit on the street and wait for their team cars to retrieve them.
I put my head down, stayed focused and the miles rolled by before I noticed that I was wheezing a bit and (of all things) yawning!! I progressively started to feel like I had an elephant sitting on my chest and before long was having an extremely difficult time breathing - I'd not taken any medication before the race and the cherry blossoms and other assorted irritants were really getting to me. I don't have a therapeutic use exemption form on file for UCI racing - if I'd taken my meds and gotten selected for doping control I would have tested positive for a banned substance and received a 2 year suspension - not good. Eventually I crawled into the team car and watched things play out to the bitter end.
I'm sort of bummed about how things went but really, in the end, there's not a whole lot I could have done about it. Anne and Lori had strong finishes and Yukie suffered from the same asthma/allergic problems that I'd experienced. Not a super team showing but given the circumstances, it could have been worse. It was great just to be able to chill with my teammates in Northern Michigan for part of Memorial Day weekend. I even managed to read an entire book and half of a second one.
I received a bit of bad news when I arrived home late Sunday night - one of my most favorite racing studs was injured rather badly in a crash over the weekend. He was having an incredible season thus far so it was quite an unfortunate thing. The good thing is that he's tough as nails and will surely work hard to recover and be strong again. Hang in there and be patient, dude.
Up next, a visit with my old teammate Trudy who's in town visiting from Australia - I can't wait to see her!! After that, a time trial in Wisconsin next weekend and some other local/regional stuff. As always, thank you for reading and for your comments!
