Hello, here is a quick wee update on what has been happening in my first few days in Aigle, Switzerland. Which is where the NZ Junior Track Cycling team is having our build up for the Junior World Track Championships 2011.
The girls ready to leave at Auckland airport
We arrived in Aigle, Switzerland late on Friday night local time after two 12 hour flights, two 1 hour flights and a 1hour20min train ride. Aigle is a small town about 10km off lake Geneva, it is surrounded by massive mountains on either sides... so you can't ride to far without ending up on an endless climb like the ones you see on the tour de France. We got straight in to training and on the Saturday the Enduro boys and girls all went on a bunch ride for just over 2 hours heading along a river towards St Bernard (which is where those massive dogs are from) and then we had a wee explore around the town for the rest of the day. Sunday was our first day of track training on the small 200m Aigle track. Knowing where and when to lap off in a teams pursuit took a while to get used to, but that training went well and we just did a couple of team efforts to get back into the swing of riding as a team on the track again.
Monday was a hard V02 day with individual efforts and then I went for a road ride towards the lake through the middle of endless corn field's and rode up a cobble road hill to a church in a small town to have a look around the area and the view was just amazing. I find this place so beautiful and very much like a European Wanaka.
Yesterday was a power day. So we had huge gears on and we did standing starts which are killers. Then us enduro girls went out for an hour ride with Mark Ryan who is an elite cyclist that is staying with us for some of the time while we are in Switzerland because he is here to do some intense hill training, he gives us another riders point of view on what we can do to improve which is a great help especially because he is a rider him self.
Ride along the river
Finally, today is a rest day so we only have an hour recovery ride then we are free for the day to go out sight seeing around the area. I think that a group of us are going to catch the train to a place called Montreux which is a town on the lake for lunch and maybe a shop and if the rain stops then we will go to a water hole for a swim.
Apart from today the weather has been amazing with temperatures of 30degrees plus a day and adjusting to this crazy heat has been tough but such a good change from the freezing NZ weather. We are staying at a hostel like place that is associated with the track here and it is 3km away from the track so we ride to and from training and we also have dinner and lunch at the track, the meals have been amazing which is a huge help with getting settled into life here. Time is flying by here and the competition date is creeping up super fast, but I can't wait for it all to begin.
Apart from today the weather has been amazing with temperatures of 30degrees plus a day and adjusting to this crazy heat has been tough but such a good change from the freezing NZ weather. We are staying at a hostel like place that is associated with the track here and it is 3km away from the track so we ride to and from training and we also have dinner and lunch at the track, the meals have been amazing which is a huge help with getting settled into life here. Time is flying by here and the competition date is creeping up super fast, but I can't wait for it all to begin.
What we called home in Aigle
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