Living in luxury

We stayed for one more night in Luxembourg before traveling to Switzerland. It was about a 7 hour drive, but it took much longer because we are caravanning with the three team vehicles. The van that was most recently acquired from the New Zealand team has some difficulty getting up the hills at speed, so we had to take it pretty easy until Michelle would come barreling past us on the descents. We are staying in a small lakeside town of Bissone, approximately 10 kilometers from Lugano and 15 kms from the Italian border. We are also very close to Lake Como. I would never have known that we are in Switzerland – it looks and feels like Italy and everyone in this region speaks Italian. The weather has been glorious – shorts and jersey weather for riding. We are being absolutely spoiled as the lucky beneficiaries of the Vince’s reconnaissance trip to see the 2009 World’s course venue in Mendrisio (approximately 15 km from our little town). Julie, one of the young and very fast girls on the trip will also be racing at the World championships and so we are riding the courses and Vince is doing videoing so the other athletes can see the course. We are staying at the hotel where the Canadian team will stay and although it is a much nicer than the typical accommodation for Canadian Cycling Association trip, Vince felt it was important for him to check it out before the event. We have a package arrangement with full pension and the restaurant food is incredibly delicious (see pictures) – breakfast is a buffet and for dinner and lunch we order off the set menu. We can have an appetizer, entrée, and desert for each meal if we wish. We actually spend much more time relaxing over meals, overlooking Lake Lugano, than we do riding. I have unfortunately caught the cold that one of the other girls had (even with my anti-vial drops!), so I have been riding less. Hopefully I will be able to shake it before this weekend’s BIG race. On Sunday we will race the World Cup in Berne – it is a very challenging course with a cobbled climb and descent. The riding I have done has been magnificent – once you get off the busier roads, and there are many cyclists out and about. Today I saw Nicole Cook, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist from Great Britain, out for a training ride around the lake – pretty unbelievable to stumble upon such famous riders. We have three more days of luxury before we move to Berne in preparation for the World cup.