Madrid World Cup

Finishing up a 3 week World Cup tour with the Madrid World Cup, the group of Aussies rolled into Madrid late on Thursday afternoon after another lovely 9hr bus ride. Madrid World Cup is unique as it's hosted in the middle of a city in a massive park. Great for spectators with a fast undulating track with the odd steep pinch and sketchy dusty corners. The park is huge and offers the locals trail running, road riding, row boating, cable car, mountain biking, prostitutes............ummm yeah you get an education riding to the course thats for sure.

The women had 5 laps of the fast 8km course and we took off at 10am to beat the heat. I was number 43 in the pack of 89 riders and was a little unsure how the race was going to pan out since I have had a head cold since Offenburg, the plan was to race conservatively. Had the usual hectic start and struggled not to lose too many positions, once the gun went off I forgot about racing conservatively and it was on. The course doesn't allow for any rest with a fast and furious pace, I was mantianing position well, to and froing with Sue Hayward then on the last lap was able to pass a few women to move up in the field and finish 36th. Once again pretty happy with my result considering my cold and am now back in Colorado for some base training. I head back to Europe in 4 weeks for the Fort Williams World Cup and the World Championships in Italy.