Friday, July 11, 2008

Klagenfurt-Friday morning

Well we are now inside of 48 hours to race morning! This being two days before the race is the day we sit around most of the day and eat a lot--sweet! The only thing we have planned is an easy swim this morning--otherwise it's rest, rest, rest.

This morning is absolutely stunning here in Klagenfurt. It's about 72 degrees and the lake is calm and peaceful. we are staying at a fantastic little lakeside hotel with just 12 rooms. The people who work here are amazingly nice. There is an English couple who is here and the gentleman is racing as well--we have arranged with them to have breakfast at 3:45am on race morning--they'll make us coffee and everything--doesn't get any better than that!

The only major unknown at this point is race morning weather. There are conflicting reports but weather.com is calling for rain/thunder with a high of 80 degrees. Temp-wise, no complaints here but the rain would present a challenge. The bike course is VERY twisty/curvy and up and down. It's a real bike rider's course and i for one am glad I have my road bike. Anders has his tri-bike which will be a challenge on this course, especially if it's raining.

We drove the course yesterday and it's very beautiful and absorbing--it's the anti-Florida course. it has 3 significant climbs. None of them are long, the longest is about 2-2.5 km but they are quite steep, certainly approaching 15 degrees over extended sections. there are lots of swooping descents (like 25 of them per lap) that it would be easy to hit 40+ mph. Easy, if it was dry and you knew the course well and you were rock solid confident in your descending skill. i, for one, plan on giving my brakes a good workout! Realistically, especially given my race plan (easy, easy bike) this is a 6 hour bike ride.

Anyways, we slept well, had a great breakfast by the lake and are in good spirits--onward and upward!

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