I'm just enjoying a nice fire and keeping cozy indoors today, as yesterday I had a darn nasty road race in the cold and rain. Its been a really tough few weeks actually with just the occasional nice day, but mostly rainy. I managed to pick up a little virus, which never really got hold, but made me feel strange for a few weeks.

I decided to still do the Brescia, which was the first round of the Internazionali d'Italia series. It was more of a cross course though, up and down stairs and alley ways, partly inside a fabulous old castle. I started well, but then lacked a little power over the small grunts, so finished up 9th. Jacob won the race, so that was once again nice for the team.. considering Roel has also been winning races down in Cyprus, its been a nice start to the season for us all.

Otherwise I've been staying home a lot, keeping the training going as well as possible and doing road races during the weekends. They upgraded me to Cat 1 now (probably because of my 2nd place in Tour de Pilat last year, bugger it!) So it means I have no more 'easy' road races and I have to travel a little more. For me, these races are really fast and there is no room for error. Yesterday I made the mistake of putting on my jacket at the wrong time.. so I was at the back of the bunch when they started cranking it and many riders were leaving gaps.. So I got dropped after just 50km and before the major climb.. not so spectacular!!

And then today I had a surprise visitor ringing my door bell... a guy from Swiss Olympic Association to give me a random drug test. Well, I was very happy, because it shows they are testing and I don't send all my whereabouts info in for nothing! I asked what would happen if I was 'out' and he said that he would wait for a day or two if necessary, ask the neighborers etc... What a job eh!

Next weekend I'm going to head down south to Avignon to get some warmer weather and do a small race called Raid des Dentelles. Its not a UCI event, but is supposedly a beautiful event, so I'm looking forward to that!!  ¶ 9:17 PM