The day before a World Cup is a strange one. The goal is to get out and get a feel for the course but not to do too much on the course. It is different for each athlete – some don’t like to ride the course the day before, some like to do multiple laps, others only do one or two laps – breaking down the key sections, and others do a mixture of a ride.

In previous years and particularly last year, I spent too much time riding the course. I rode it on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This resulted in my getting extremely anxious and nervous before the race. I also felt that I knew the course really well and that I would have an amazing race. I guess this is called false confidence… Anyway, this year I resolved to do things differently. As tempting as it was to do ride the course yesterday with Nikoline, I stuck to my plan – an hour and a bit of easy road riding.

Today when I arrived at the course I had a plan and once again I was able to stick to it. It can be tempting to ride with others and to ride at their pace. Well, I rode with Gabby for a bit and Nikoline for a bit but mostly I did my own thing. Today I did two laps easy – looking at the corners, checking out the lines, practicing the steep set of climbs and looking at the lines on the wooded and shaded descent. Then I did one lap harder (not full out) just big ring riding carrying speed into and out of the corners, accelerating where I knew I would be during the race and paying attention to the gearing I would need for the race. This helped me learn a few things: remember to shift into an easy gear before the barriers – there is a subtle false flat there on soft grass that is more taxing than I realized, remember to shift into the small ring before the stair run-up – because there is a steep climb to tackle immediately after the run-up, carry lots of speed into the other sequence of climbs and stay left – this lets me attack the last steep short pitch on a diagonal – oh and dabbing is okay – lots are doing it – but I can do it without dabbing as well. After this lap I did one more easy lap – again to look at lines and to practice things one more time. After all of this I hopped on the trainer for an easy spin out of my legs and to eat some lunch.

Normally I have to hang around for the number pick-up and the manager’s meeting but this year I have Ignace here so he is doing all of this for me. What a change of pace. I also don’t need to worry about cleaning my bikes and changing around tires – again Ignace is doing all this. I feel so lucky to have his help right now. I can really just relax and chill out and not sweat the details.

It was great to see everyone today – seems like forever since I’ve seen all of my racing friends. Everyone wanted to know how my dad was doing and also where he was…. Many thanks to Christine for the massive jar of specculous and speculous cookies – I know my parents will appreciate them. (I’m keeping the pistachio chocolate bar for myself!)

The weather here is fantastic – it is around 16 celsius with a brilliant blue sky and a bright sun – perfect racing weather. We race at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. After our race it will be nice to chill out and watch the elite men race. I’ll do my best to take some photos for you.

Alright, I’m going to sign off now and relax with my new book: In The Kitchen by Monica Ali. Best of luck to those of you racing in Cobden as part of the Eastern Ontario Series and in Grangogue. (Oh, I heard from Bob – there were 37 women racing in Renfrew last Sunday – this is fantastic!)

And remember, if you see Marc at the race – give him a hug and a kiss for me… Couldn’t do this without his amazing support.

I’ve had a pretty darn good day here in Plzen. I had a bit of a fitful sleep thanks to the time difference and my rather overly warm room (the wet clothes dried though!). Nothing too startling happened today really – just a regular day I suppose.

After a good breakfast here at the hotel (why can’t American and Canadian hotels provide breakfasts as good as those in Europe?), I headed out for my ride. After a bit of research last night thanks to Google and discussion with Marc, I decided to drive over to the race course site. I remembered a set of bicycle paths and trails starting from this area. Well this was an excellent choice. I ended up following trail/path #3 – it took me through the countryside, up, down, up some more, out on to some quiet roads, and up some more. Did I mention that it is hilly here? Well, it is rather hilly!

But these hills were perfect for my ride today. I don’t have my SRM with me so the hills helped me hit the effort levels I needed for today’s ride. My legs felt pretty good considering the travel and restless sleep. I lucked out with a relatively sunny day and most importantly dry day.

I ended up “talking” to two people on my ride today – one was a motorist who slowed down to talk with me – I thought he was going to yell at me but he was smiling and laughing, the conversation quickly ended when I said “Canada, Canada. English, English”; the other conversation was with a man walking in the park – he stopped me and said something of which I understood “World Cup” – to which I smiled, pointed at the my name on my bike and the Canadian flag.

I did manage to snap a few pictures during my ride (apologies since these were taken with my iPhone…):
View from the bicycle paths:


Some houses on my route:


Building in an industrial park with a cool paint job:

Sign from the park where I started my ride. This park seems to be a nature reserve with lots of signs identifying the animals and plants. The river has swans and Canadian geese. I think this sign is showing the cycling paths:

Gratuitous shot of me out on my bike (pardon the smirk):

My car and the trusty steed:

In case you’re wondering what I had for supper (beef goulash and salmon with spicy vegetables and corn cakes):

So that’s the kind of day it’s been. I did get my other bike built and I’ll take it out for ride tomorrow. Other than riding today I’ve been doing some work and chilling out a bit. I hit up the nearby mall to see what the supper options were over there – well, three good looking restaurants but they were all very smokey so I elected to eat at the hotel.

Tomorrow a crew of people arrive. My mechanic Ignace arrives as do Gabby and Gregg and I think Nikoline might have arrived today. Looking forward to talking to people and catching up with my pals.

Good news – I made it to Plzen, the Czech Republic safe and sound. The travel was actually fairly easy. With a pretty much empty flight from Ottawa to Frankfurt, I had an entire row to myself and was able to get some sleep. The flight from Frankfurt to Prague was delayed but no big deal. The only trying moment of the trip was getting to the rental car pick-up spot… Needed to use an elevator that unfortunately didn’t fit luggage carts so I had to manhandle my bike bags into the elevator and out. This was followed by a rather long walk in the damp to the rental car location.

I certainly lucked out with my car. You might remember my agonizing over what “type” of car to rent… Well, I chose Volkswagen Golf Stationwagon or similar. Imagine my surprise when I was handed the keys to a bright red Peugeot Partner – in other words an SUV! Very happy with this vehicle (this is the same vehicle we had last year in Belgium).

The drive to Plzen was fairly uneventful. Though I have to admit the speed limit of 130 km/hour is a bit a shock. But I made out okay. The hotel is excellent and I have super big room (which is a complete disaster right now…). After a quick bite to eat (I brought oatmeal pre-made from home) it was time to build a bike. I must admit this is the part of the travel I dread the most – I’m just not confident with my bike building skills. Well, very happy to report that I got one bike together in less than 20 minutes and it worked out brilliantly.

I went out for an easy spin of the legs. The rain wasn’t that welcoming but I dressed for it and it really was just nice to be out riding. I found a great park near the centre of Plzen that has a combination of paved and gravel paths – perfect spot for a spin of the legs. I explored pretty much every trail and ended up having an excellent ride. Truth be told, I didn’t really want to head back to the hotel – it was so refreshing to be out riding in this massive green space in the city.

The rest of the day/evening has been pretty chilled out. Spent some time cleaning my bike and dealt with my soggy clothes. I currently have the temperature set at 30 celsius in attempts of drying out my soggy clothes… I had a good meal at the hotel here and then off to Tesco’s for some food supplies.

Well, that’s probably more information you wanted about my day… But that’s what the first day in Plzen has been like. Tomorrow I have to do a longer ride with a series of different intervals. I’m thinking of driving over to where the race course is because I remember there being a really good network of bicycle paths starting from that park.

Looking forward to connecting with everyone as they start to arrive over the next few days. Many thanks to Gregg Germer for bringing me a trainer and wheel and to Christine for the offers of anything from Belgium.

Alright, this is all I have for now. I’ll try to take some photos tomorrow and post them up.

Last night I went to bed feeling pretty darn good – everything was in order for my trip to the Czech Republic. Bikes are packed. Cycling clothes are packed. My street clothes are packed. Essentially, I’m ready to go.

This morning while making some food to bring with me on the plane I started to notice a feeling in my stomach. The same feeling I used to get on the first day of school… Yes, guess I’m feeling a bit nervous and excited. Funny, I’ve made similar trips numerous times in recent years.

Really, I just want to get on the plane tonight. Until then I’ll keep myself busy with some work, some bike riding, last minute run to the grocery store and then I’ll be off.

If you see Marc at the races while I’m gone – be sure to give him a hug and a kiss for me (yes Conor and Evan I’m talking to you!).

A big thank you to my sponsors and to you for the support, confidence, and amazing words of encouragement – couldn’t do this without you. Huge thanks to Marc who really has made it possible for me to chase my dreams.