The temperature was really hot and humid in addition to the rolling roads, combined with 2 punctures in the first 8 miles meant that the going was slow for the AM session. It would have been a lovely ride on a normal day and an interesting change from the normal straight roads. We followed the 140 alongside the Mississippi crossing over it a few times.

The ground is very green and fertile which is a welcome change from the various shades of brown. We crossed St Louis over the river again and encountered rush hour traffic with no soft shoulder. It was terrifying to ride through the traffic and after a couple of close shaves we decided to jump on the rv for a few miles. The RAAM riders have escorts on interstates and through cities, we just rely on nous and London riding experience…..

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Not ideal I know, but I decided to do the National Championships about 2 hours before the race last Saturday. I couldn’t decide if I should race for the third weekend in a row. I was tired, my Achilles was a bit sore and I really couldn’t face getting myself ‘up’ for another hard race. The only real attractions to race were convenience (it was down the road) and financial.

Surprisingly the race turned out to be quite enjoyable. The weather was lovely and I actually felt pretty good in the race. I wore my new sleeveless wetsuit as the water temp was supposedly below 20 deg and I had a good swim coming out just behind the leaders. I cycled up the first hill hard and reached the front of the group with ease. In fact so many people got dropped up the hill on the second lap that the lead group was whittled down to 5. I must admit I did chuckle to myself when I realised that both of the Olympic reserves (domestiques) lost contention on the hill. I attacked several times on the bike up the hill but planned to put in my biggest effort with a lap to go. However, my plans went out the window when I got a puncture on lap 8 of 9 (I wasn’t chuckling now!). When I did make it into T2 I’d lost 30-40 secs to the leaders. I ran well for the first 3 laps of the 5 lap run and closed on the leader (Hollie Avil) but tired on the final 2 laps. I was happy to settle for 2nd and eased off on the last lap but nobody had warned me about Liz B who sprinted past me in the last 400 metres. Serves me right!

The best thing though is that my injuries seem miles better and I’m really looking forward to racing in the London Triathlon on August 10th. Two weeks preparation for a race should be a lot better than 2 hours.

The countdown to London begins…

Thousands of triathletes will be descending on the capital in less than a fortnight’s time for the world’s largest triathlon - the Mazda London Tri. Now in its 12th year, the triathlon is as popular with international elite athletes as it is first timers eager to give the swim-bike-run game a go. Held at the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands on August 9 and 10, about 13,000 competitors are expected to race over supersprint, sprint and Olympic distances with relays and corporate waves also taking place.

Athletes swim in the Royal Victoria Dock before heading into the ExCel Centre which plays host to the transition zone and is arguably one of the largest transitions in the world. The bike route triathletes follow depends on the distance they are racing and the course they have selected. Some head out to Tower Bridge while others follow the Westminster Route which takes in some of the city’s most famous landmarks. After returning to the ExCel Centre once again for the second transition (T2), it is then time to pull on the running shoes and get out on the run course which consists of laps around the ExCel. With music pumping, the sun (hopefully) shining and thousands of spectators lining the course, it won’t be hard to see how scores of people pick up the tri bug good and proper at London…..

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I’ve mentioned before about the problems racing in different conditions on different courses and my last two races are a perfect example of this.

My first race this month was in the weird town of Tiszaujvaros in Hungary. I say weird because the town is in the middle of nowhere and was built purely to house the workers for a huge chemical factory nearby. Surprisingly the sports facilities are fantastic and the whole place goes mad when the triathlon World Cup rolls into town. All week before the race there are sports events and a huge noisy open-air party, which the whole town turns out for.

The race in Tiszaujvaros is always stinking hot with a flat but twisty bike and the most amazing crowd support. I went to the race with no expectations but I found myself in a small breakaway group of 5 after the swim. I would have been quite happy to jog around for 5th place but before I knew it my jogging had carried me into the lead and I won the race! It turned out I was fitter than I thought and the boiling weather (37 celsius) seemed to make everyone suffer a lot more than me. The annoying thing was that people kept congratulating me and then telling me that I should do very well in Beijing (doh!). I am the first British woman to have won 3 World Cups.

The next World Cup in Austria was only a week later. The race was in Kitzbuhel and set in the most beautiful scenery I have ever raced in….

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The day started badly with a storm headwind confronting us from highway 94. The wind has such a big impact to our daily mileage that it actually sends you into a depressive zombie like state. Coupled with this was a total of 5 punctures in the first 2 hour stint. Each puncture takes about 10 minutes to sort out and change.

You have to take your bottles off, take your saddle pouch off, turn the bike upside down, take the wheel off, get your tools, spare inner and gas out, lever the tyre off, take the inner out, unscrew the cap and adaptor rim ring, check the tyre for any embedded stones etc…..

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18 laps, 225km, 4680m of climbing.
It doesn’t seem like much when written in stats, but the truth is that my first win of 2008 was far from easy! After 12 hours of intense racing it was the closest race that I have ever done.

The event promised a lot, an excellent course, great facilities and a quality field of riders. We arrived on Thursday night which gave us the whole of Friday to relax and the chance for me to do a practice lap… and what a lap! It was fast, fun and varied. The kind of lap you looked forward to riding and where the descending seemed to outnumber the climbing.

I was lucky enough to have a brilliant pit crew for the event as well, my girlfriend Nia and Ben who works at Wiggle. Nia has been supporting me for as long as I’ve been racing and knows exactly what to do and often knows me better than I know myself. Ben has also joined us this year giving mechanical support and is already proving to be invaluable. Far from being ‘just a mechanic’ Ben has to be one of the nicest guys I know and a great friend to have at events. Every time I swap a bike or get a problem it is always sorted and I have been able to start each lap of every race so far with a perfectly working bike. I really couldn’t do my thing without the support of my team.

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At the beginning of the month we ran a competition in collaboration with Garmin to send a lucky Wiggle customer to Paris to see the Tour finalé. Our lucky winner, Oli Horton from Bristol, was randomly selected and Saturday morning was in London to chunnel his way to Paris. He’s just sent me in his thoughts and photos of what sounded like an amazing weekend… I’m not jealous… honest….

Weekends in Paris don’t have to be romantic - at least not when 145 riders are heading there as the culmination of 21 days hard graft, ticking off the final 143 kilometres remaining from the 3500 they had in front of them 3 weeks ago. Le Tour was heading to Paris, and after a phone call from Steve at Wiggle on the Monday before, so was I - only mine was going to be a much more comfortable way to get there. It took less than 5 minutes for an old friend to excuse himself from his brother-in-law’s stag do for “business” so he too could enjoy the spectacle.

As promised, Pascal was waiting at Paris’ Gare du Nord to whisk us to our hotel where our contact at Garmin came down to check us into our rooms. Louise is the Logistics and Events Director at Garmin and this weekend was the culmination of her efforts. We went for a quick stroll before ending up in the Irish Pub opposite the hotel to watch the Time Trial. As a guest of Team Garmin-Chipotle presented by H3O, it was good to see one of our boys Christian Vande Velde clawing back a place in the standings as well as a fine show from David Millar.

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Evening all….. Big and hot hard day took us 201 miles into Missouri. The weather was a killer and I am exhausted after today. Average was dead on 20 which was hard work but worth it as a big dent of missouri was cleared.

Our whitebits are interesting as in long shorts and t shirts we look like we have been lying on a mediterranean beach for a fortnight. The reality is that we look very odd when you see body top to toe. Our tans stop mid bicep and around the knee so I am thinking that I will have to invest in some fake tan if we ever make it to the beaches of New Jersey.

We stopped in a delightful rv campsite and promptly half blew up our paddling pool for the first time so we could have an icebath next to the lake (swimming not allowed!). It was a Sunday night so the site had been deserted from the weekend campers apart from a war vet who was very friendly and gave us lots of homegrown tomatoes and marrows (they naturally ended up in the chicken surprise with a few slabs of salmon chucked in for good measure). Dowsey and I have become even more infatuated with chocolate milkshakes to the point that when we were in Wichita, and running low on the brown powder, we bought, instead of our carbo recovery drink, some kind of slimming drink; it was the only chocolate thing we could find. Knowing that the Doc would give it the once over we smuggled it on board in a suspicious brown paper bag; too suspicious for the Doc’s eagle eyes it would seem as we were rumbled the next day. The subsequent telling off reminded me that term time starts in 5 weeks time…….. Early start tomorrow to try for a back to back double century so night to you all back in the UK.
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We’ve just had a bunch of blogs from Andy as he finally found some solid reception around the Rockies so apologies for it being quiet the past few days. There’s Monday - Thursday below and we’ll hopefully be getting the weekends round-up shortly.

I’m sure they all really appreciate your comments and kind words so keep them coming and hopfully Matt will be back riding full days soon…. :-)

Quite an uneventul day..

Long straight hot roads that took us 160 miles into Dodge City. We decided to cut it short today due to the head wind that is hampering progress. It should have been prevailing but due to the hurricaine in texas we are experiencing south easterly winds. I managed to average 20 mph which felt like a big effort and was joined by Matt for the last 40 today..(Hurray!) He did well but is still not back to his former self and is still feeling fatigued and weaker than normal; he just needs to take it steady tomorrow.

Kansas is a nightmare for stimulating scenery; it nearly made me fall asleep on my bike today! Have a look on google earth and you will see what I mean. I was a bit concerned at the start of the day as I didn’t see the rv until 50 miles in. They had missed me when I had stopped at a garage to make a few calls and replenish my bottles. The reception is so poor out here we can’t stay in touch on the road. I have been unable to phone, text or email for days and even now lying in bed on the outskirts of dodge there is nothing. I just hope that as we go through the city tomorrow I will get some coverage.

I am suffering from a bruised bum which is being masked by Dr De’s wonderful conconctions. The painkillers wear off after about 2 hrs which gives me another 2hrs of biting my lip and low level sobbing before I am allowed the next booster: that, I am afraid, is life. You just have to get on with it.

We met a guy today who is cycling from west to east but on another route. He has been cyvling for 6 weeks to date and reckons he will finish at the end of august. He is taking all his kit with him and camping overnight.. Now that is really hardcore. Pip gave him some juice and bars which he was very grateful for, we wished him well and good luck for the rest of his ride. Its nice to bump into other chain gangers enroute, you share a common bond and speak about winds, roads and weather. The sun was out today bigtime, not as bad as the desert but hot enough for continual head dowsing. I drank so much today that I was heavier at the end of the ride than at the beginning. We are burning around 13000 cals at the moment per day which means that I will be very skinny in the next few days.. Wrong!! I seem to be losing nothing which means that our food and fluid intake is spot on..
Anyway… Tired and 200+ plus day tomorrow so better get some shuteye. Night. Andy.
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