24 May 2006

Update, sort of.

My computer finally died last week, it was like loosing an old friend. I fought hard for the last three weeks trying to keep it alive, and everyday it brought new challenges. I turned it on dailey to see if there was any change, some times there was a glimmer of hope as the start screen blinked on, a small apple, a flicking clock (sorry PC owners, it's a Mac) and then the password option. I was in, it was having good day, five minutes of email, a quick surf and then, death. I tried every fix in the book, hitting, kicking, swearing, even slamming the top down in disgust, don't worry, it was used to it as it had been dropped many times. Some soothing words, and rubbing it's underbelly sometimes worked, spot on the table here, a bench there, there was no real pattern to it's erratic behavior. But a few mins a day is all I needed, the new laptop I was waiting for was about to be released. I just need to hang on for another week or two. It was almost as bad as taking my bike off me for week or two, I was going crazy.

With my hand still pretty swollen from the hit it took in Gracia, I decided to miss the Tour D'Aulde, a 10 day stage race in France, and rest. I was still working on a few small races in Holland, and Belgium with the other team members, so it was not quite a break. The hand was coming along well, it's amazing the pain you can endure when there is around 16 new carbon wheels, to glue some tires on to. Brings back memories to last years start (find it in the archives), but the team was taking six of the girls to race. Including Amber, last years winner, we had five others and they needed wheels. A few days later, the truck was packed, ready for action, full of TT bikes, race and spare, plus everything the boys would need for 10 days of racing. Things got pretty crazy down there, with a half of the team dropping out, Mirjam (on going dodgey leg thing, tell ya later), Sandra (crashed out, hospital, sweet now), Loes (broken collar bone). We still managed to control the race and take out the Team TT, a couple of stages, held on to the yellow jersey for most of the week, and the young riders jersey, Amber won the whole thing, with Susanne taking a stage and 2nd overall, so thing were pretty good.

In Holland we were racing a few smaller races, these we took out a few firsts and seconds, and had some good racing with the rest of the gang. Thing are looking good for the next few months, so hope we can continue with the good sucesses, and get our injured girls back on the road asap.

I just ordered my new laptop, one of the new Macbooks, so this should be here in a week or so. So then I can get a few of the stories and pics posted from the last few weeks, and catch up on some email and stuff. It's amazing that as much as you think you can leave the internet alone for a while, you are addicted to it, face up to it, I certainly have. Hey I even bought and started reading a book, that's got to be the first for me for many years. We take for granted the amount of information available through our screens, and it's amazing how addicted you get to finding anything you want in a matter of minutes. I miss it.

So come back in a week or so, I should have some good stuff for you. Off to Germany for a couple of races with Tanja and Linda this week, and a bit of riding there as well, yeha.

1 comment:

MunkieFast said...

Have fun, look forward to some good stories