Hi all,
I am writing this from the comfort of my home back in Cape Town. The last post I wrote was of the WC final in Val di Sole, but I still had a further slightly less exciting 3 weeks in Europe. So let me fill you in…
The day after the WC final in Val di Sole I dashed over the mountains with the BMC team over to Switzerland where I took a quick train ride to meet up with an one of my an ex pat South African Johan Greeff who is now living in St Gallen with his Swiss wife Elvira. Johan used to be one of the top Elite riders in SA a few years back, so it was grat to have him show me his “home” trails. The week flew by and was ended off by the final round of the Swiss National Series in Basel, Switzerland. It also happened to be a UCI Cat one race, so there were a lot of top riders there to earn points including Julien Absalon, Lukas Fluckiger and Moritz Miltaz.
Unfortunately for me I found out that my body was still really tired from the last two World Cups as I started the second lap, and things didn’t go very well from there on. I had probably the best form I have had this year, but it was such a pity that I couldn’t use it. I finished the race but the result isn’t worth mentioning! It was good though to see another Saffa, Caitlen de Wet finishing off her European campaign with the race also.
The next day I was on my way yet again to Amsterdam. The point of this trip was not for racing, but rather to give the body a bit of a break from all the hard work and to meet some family as well as get to know the country my family comes from. Looking back at it now, the 12days all went very quickly, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time staying with family friends, as well as visiting my uncle and aunt in another region of Holland. In the last week I had the urge to pick up my bike again and did some touring of the area. All the flat riding got old quickly, and it was strange to note that I actually missed going uphill! I got to see some good sights both on and off the bike. Amsterdam also surprised me with what a diverse city it is. With the amount of English spoken on the streets yo wouldn’t think that you are in Holland.
Below are some of my favourite pics that I took. Right now I am busy doing some preparation for on of the last races in the season for me, Karoo to Coast. Slightly different, but lets see what I can do!
Keep earning those wings!
