April 25, 2006

Hi from the sunny south of france,
So I am back here fora bit of euro racing and training before joining the Canadian National team for the world cups. It has been pretty busy so far this year, especially since it is still not even the end of April! In February I got my nice new carbon Epic just before heading to New Zealand for a pre-Commonwealth Games training camp. Geoff and I raced Oceania
Championships which was a great opportunity to check out the course for Worlds in August. Apparently it could be quite different then since in February it was summer and in August it will be winter and there is some potential for rain…

After that it was off to Melbourne, Australia for Commonwealth Games. It was such a great experience! We stayed in the village and I met so many incredible people. It wasn’t so hot until the day of the race and then I just about died- but still finished with a bronze. It was very inspiring to have both Canadian women on the podium there.

From Australia we flew directly to the first World Cup in Curacao and it was HOT there!!!! It was a really different travel experience than I had ever had. Nice beaches, swimming, sharks, eating coconuts from the trees- it was a challenge to remember we were there for a race. The course was pretty fun other than the millions of 4cm long thorns that attacked your tires everywhere and the complete lack of anywhere to pass. One kid was attacked with rocks and his bike stolen during training and we went through the back yard of “bon future”, the country’s jail- a bit random! The finish was right on the beach so being able to go right into the ocean after made up for all that craziness.

Home for a day due to flight mishaps and then I was off to Sea Otter to do my first race of the year with TeamRACE. It was great to see everyone again. This was the first time I had raced here in the mud and it was epic. In the past it was difficult to justify putting the chamois on for a 5min TT this year it was tragic! The mud definitely added a bit of challenge to the races and in retrospect it was actually pretty fun. The new xc course was great and I loved the bike on it.

Back home to catch up on everything and then I headed to Europe for the first French Cup. The area around St Flour was beautiful and after the race I did a sweet road ride. The race was not so interesting. There was a lot of climbing which is great practice for me but the descent was through a muddy ditch so not so wonderful. I am looking forward to a dry race in Madrid.

Spending the next week in Carcassonne training and trying to learn some French since I promised the announcer in St Flour that next time I would do an interview in French. Good motivation! Trying to stay away from too many French treats and cheese since it is still so early in the season…

Thank you so much to everyone who is taking such wonderful care of me this year: Team RACE, Specialized, Rock Shox, Shimano, Sugoi, Gears, Energy Savings Group, 10th St Chiro, Fitness Excellence, Body Phyx, Edible Island, and Pacificsport. I really appreciate everything you do for me. Your support is a huge motivation and inspiration and I really enjoy working with all of you.

Kiara