Check out those ripped legs and smoldering eyes! Credit: Rob Jones, Canadian Cyclist

Anyway, what does the driving and traffic have to do with my race? Well, we got really lost trying to get to the race and arrived at Casa de Campo (big city park near downtown) less than an hour before the start. A little bit o' stress never hurt anyone! It was okay, actually. I didn't let it get to me, made many jokes about the situation with my INCOMPETENT navigators and went on with my race prep.

The race was tough. I started 74th out of 109 racers. Already on the first lap, I got caught in a traffic jam and actually had to stop, get off
my bike and wait my turn to walk around a tight corner. It was nuts. I think it was the biggest field I've ever raced in. I placed 70th, which I was pretty surprised about because I thought I rode way better than my result! It's almost impossible to move up though, in such a big pack -- and once we were spread out enough to ride properly, the front women were long gone.

Frustrating. Some people managed to have some impressive results, however. In the women's race, one of the Chinese girls had a 96th start position and finished 11th!! I don't know how she did it.

Anyway, I felt strong, I raced strong, I was three minutes faster than last year (same course, same # of laps, same weather/course conditions) and I was also half a minute closer to Dahle in the end than last year. That said, she was also three minutes faster than she was last year! I think it's a sign of how the level of competition just keeps going up.

70th is a little hard to swallow, since I was setting my sights on top 30 (I was 45th last year, but there were only 71 women). Many Canadian women had tough races though: Marie-Helene was 10th (flatted when she was in second place), Alison was 27th, Wendy was 35th (she actually had a good race -- she started back with me), Kiara 42nd, Trish 65th (started in 105th spot). Martina DNF'd because her hip acted up. She sounds like a senior citizen or something!

I had fun though. That course just makes me giddy, with its fast whoop-dee-doos and rollercoaster quality. Wheeeeeee!

Ooh! I forgot to mention another exciting thing about Madrid. On Saturday we dropped by the SRAM trailer and got to hang out with our buddies Torben, Martin, Jeremiah, Sander and the rest of the crew. It was good to see the guys again. And this time they admired my swanky new Felt decked out with SRAM XO, Avid Juicy Carbons, Rock Shox Reba World Cups and Truvativ cranks. A completely different story than my ghetto bike from last year.

I'd like to thank my man Andri for the feed and support. He fed me from the right side every time, gave me a gel when I wanted it and kept me motivated by yelling: "You're doing awesome! You're in 70th!" (I understood "You're in 30th!" so I was a little disappointed when I saw the results...).