Alpen Tour Stage 4: landslides and flooding

Very heavy rain yesterday morning greeted me when I opened the curtains. No surprise there then ;) With full waterproofs packed in my start bag - as well as a kayak ;) - we headed off to our team area to warm up. I wasn't especially looking forward to getting cold and wet, but I know that once the gun goes I just get on with it. The planned stage was shortened to avoid the snow line and my aim was to ride cautiously while defending my overall lead.

Sitting in the car with the heater on I wound down the window enough to hear talk of landslides, flooding and road closures, closely followed by talk of cancelling the stage. Meanwhile I was also tweeting with British cyclocross star Helen Wyman whose preference was to have a 40 min race up and down the downhill course instead....of course Helen would be the likely winner of that race ;) Team mechanic, Peter Felber, was busy setting up our turbo trainers while Dave went to the race office for confirmation.

Relief was my initial reaction to the news that we wouldn't be racing in these terrible conditions, but then I felt disappointed because I was, after all, there to race. Nevertheless the race organisers made a tough but sensible decision. Having won the first 3 stages I also took the overall race victory :)

Our thoughts quickly turned to getting home so we booked new flights before dashing to the podium and then driving the long way to Munich airport avoiding the flooding around Salzburg. The rain didn't stop lashing down until we were cruising at 25,000 feet above Munich!

Now I am warm and dry in sunny England. Next stop: National Marathon Championships, Selkirk, Scotland on Saturday :) This will be my first marathon race in England for a few years and I'm pretty excited :D

Thanks for following. Have fun!

Sal :)

Lasting memory: Alpen Tour 2013