Days 9 - 11

DAY NINE – Sunday
Well, after a late night talking…….I got to sleep at about 11pm. Woke up at 4:45am, oh dear. Finally got up at about 6:20am and went downstairs to breakfast. Neelu went back to sleep and came down later. We were going to go to the supermarket but it was closed. Apparently the place closes on a Sunday, so we headed into Bordeaux which of course was closed because of it being a Sunday, church day. Never mind, we had a lovely day just quietly walking around. Brought another fridge magnet, we’ve got a very big fridge with plenty of room on it so I can justify buying fridge magnets…don’t you think????? We didn’t walk around too much. Once back at the hotel we just lazed around which is good. Back into training tomorrow and it will be good. Neelu is getting heaps better which is great. She will be flying by the time we start the Champs. Hard to believe that in eight days time it all starts. Bring it on………….Fiona’s track bike still hasn’t turned up. Tim Carswell had to make an emergency trip with Fiona’s track bike but it was left in Munic, Tim said that he saw it beside the plane at Munic and thought “Sweet, it’s going to be put on the plane”, BUT, when he got to Bordeaux and off the plane he only had his luggage and not the bike…..sound familiar (luggage). Most of the gear (ergs, Fiona’s TT bike) from what I can gather are still in Auckland……great isn’t it. We must be here for a holiday I think. Heads will roll…………Well, dinner time shortly. Yummy……..

DAY TEN – Monday
Wow! What a feed! We went to a mainly seafood/mussel restaurant that’s only 2 minutes walk, we look at it from our hotel window. I had a medium steak – in NZ it would be a rare…….yummy, very nice. The chef was a hard case, Brian went and saw him with regards to vegetables and he came out with a plate full for us to look at. Primo. We got 4 x large plates full of vegetables for everyone to help their selves to, they were beautiful. Five of the group get the mussels and you should have seen the dishes when they came out, chocker blocker full of small mussels, giant king prawns and calamari (squid rings) in a tomato type base sauce. The mussels would be undersize in NZ. They were very sweet.
This morning I slept in – 6:50am. For those that know me you will know that this is a sleep in. Got up and sleepwalked to the restaurant for breakfast. Fiona told me to open my eyes. I think I should have lain in bed for a few minutes longer…….didn ‘t take too long and the eyes opened quite nicely. Had breakfast then Neelu and I went out for a quiet 30km ride. Round and round our little circuit we went. Going straight out after breakfast is not a good thing to do and I do know that. Never again!!!!!!! Very windy I was…..Neelu is really good today. She has had a good sleep and her chest is all but clear. We have a track session this afternoon between 1 – 3pm but we won’t be hammering it as we want to make sure that she is 100% recovered. Tomorrow we will be hammering the track. We have a three hour session so that is going to be excellent.
It’s a bit overcast today but still a very nice temperature. A light breeze is blowing and I’ve got washing hanging up in the window – again. Certainly doesn’t take long to get dry that’s for sure.
The latest on Fiona’s track bike is that now the airline has no record of it, I think that they’ve decided that they are going to be pigs about it and aren’t interested in helping. So, Fi’s bike is lost and the ergs have gone missing too by the sounds of it or I could have that completely wrong. The ergs may still be in Auckland – who would know……..That’s all for the moment. We are just resting before heading down to the track. Will report on how that goes later. Track went reasonably good tonight. Neelu is still feeling the effects of the chest cold but is getting by the day. It was so weird today heading down to the track. I started to feel a bit tense because all of a sudden it started to hit me that the champs aren’t that far away. There was a kind of nervous energy around the place. People are starting to set up the areas where each country will be warming up etc and the hussle and bussle was quite sobering.
Once back we’d had showers back at the hotel Gabs and I went down the road to the supermarket only we didn’t quite get into the supermarket, we wandered on past it and went to a couple of shops just beyond it. What a lovely time we had……….The shop was closing the doors and we were paying for a purchases and I thought it must have been about 6pm. Well, you can imagine our shock when we saw that it was 7pm!!!! Precisely the time that the team was meeting down in the lobby to go to dinner…..oh dear….we walked rather fast back to the hotel. We were a bit sheepish by the time we got back but it wasn’t too bad. We apologised for our tardiness. Lovely dinner. Time for bed.
DAY ELEVEN – Tuesday
Didn’t wake up until 6:50 again this morning…..amazing……mind you I was awake at 4am, lay there thinking how wide awake I was when next thing I know it was 6:50am. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. We had a track session from 11 – 2pm today and what a ripper!!!!!! Neelu is on top of her game again which is fantastic. We did this progressive 8 lapper and rode it to perfection finishing off with a 17.9 second lap, FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!! Felt sooooooooo good after it. Every lap we just got faster and faster. The next time out doing the same thing we had another great ride. We were on a smaller gear so we didn’t quite go as quick (1.2 seconds slower overall) but we got steadily faster and faster every lap. It was a wonderful feeling. Brian was riding the Derny (motorbike) after that and we were doing even faster laps and I was on my aerobars – exciting stuff………….all in all the session was a real confidence booster. After getting back to the hotel and showering, Gabs, Jane and I went for a walk down to the shops and supermarket. This time I managed to get some groceries – after Jane and I had had a gandering around the shops – again. We made it back in plenty of time to get changed and go out for dinner which again was very nice. Had a cuppa milo with Ann-Marie, Tim and Jane which was lovely. Now time for bed as it is getting rather late. Tomorrow is a quiet road ride in the morning and a track session from 5 – 7pm tomorrow night. Bring it on. Goodnight.