European Competition Tour; Prologue and STAGE 1

In my time here in Europe I am going to describe it as if each day were a stage in the Tour De France or some other major european stage race.

PROLOGUE:

Monday morning, Vanessa drove me to the airport as Jeff Phillips and I embarked on our 5 hour flight to Toronto where we were joined by Coaches Craig Taylor and Greg Kealey along with fellow U23 athlete Andrew Yorke. After another 9 hours of flying and a quick stop in Munich we arrived in Budapest Hungary. We drove from there to Tiszaujvaros which is a quaint little industrial town. Short run upon our arrival to get the cobwebs out of our legs finished off our day. I am amazed of how many people ride bikes here. The streets are full of them. However, In contrast I would estimate 80% of them smoke. The people here are very friendly even with us clueless tourists.


Stage 1: (Wednesday)

This day was a little bit cooler then yesterday. Which was a welcome relief for today’s training. The morning was spent retrieving groceries and getting organized. Around noon we hit the road for an hour ride. I snuck in four rounds of thirty second efforts to activate my legs. We finished off the ride at the pool for a short swim. Dinner at the hotel with the boys and a stop at the café for some espresso n’dessert finished off the day. With reference to the tour, I would describe the area we are living as the flat stages, the ones that belong to the sprinters. The roads around here are beautiful flat roads through farmland and tiny villages scattered across the land. Sunday’s race will be the same, however much more technical including 7 fast Criterium style laps with 11 corners each lap. This will make for some exciting racing. But more on that later.

Till next time,
Hope all is well and ciao for now,

Andrew McCartney
(The European Competition Tour’s version of Phil Liggett )