Real racing

Today we are doing a very tough stage. It has one category 2 climb, two category 1 climbs and an Hors category climb. Hors category for those of you who don’t know is above category or the toughest followed by 1 category etc. One of them is often used in the tour. The last one is 10 kilometers long and starts at 14% for the first kilometer but eases off to 10% to 11% range for the remaining 9 kilos. OUCH. On the way down from the finishing hill, my ears were plugged from the altitude change.
Today we announce our Tour team. Sorry, I can’t say. Read it on www.bike.com.
For me, I was told the mechanics for the tour would not include me. I was not scheduled to do any races over here, (at the beginning of the year) so not doing the tour is not a real shocker. I had thought I had a chance to work the tour because I was brought over here with an undetermined return. Now I may return home for the month of July for a vacation and then return in August for a heavy August/September race schedule.