The past couple weeks have been an incredible experience. For cycling I have made a huge step in just a short time. Racing in Europe is a whole other level of racing and I took the challenge ready to succeed.

The team began this Euro trip in Toulouse, France, where we spent a week of training camp in southern France to get our legs ready to race.  Here are a couple pictures from riding, visiting Toulouse, and going to the start of Stage 17 of the Tour de France.

Then we traveled 10hrs north to the region of Bretagne, in the north-west corner of France.  It was a long drive but I liked seeing the french country-side.

On July 17^th began the tour of Bretagne. A 5 day stage race with a short prologo TT, 135km RR, 11km TT, 120km RR, and 110km RR. I was initially surprised by how close the cyclists ride here and despite bumping and touching at high speeds there are rarely crashes. I had fun with the technical roads and speed that these women race.

I had some great results and took big risks as well. The first day for instance with 40km to go I attacked and went in a solo break. I was caught in the last 5km and finished 7^th for the day.

Results:

Tour de Bretagne

Prologo 2km TT part uphill: 55^th (20sec back)

135km Road Race: 7^th

11km TT: 25^th (no tt bike or would have been top 10)

120km Road Race: 21^st

110km Road Race: 15^th

GC overall finish: 21^st

Belgium:

GP Zottegem-Strijpen : 2^nd place – break away with a Rabobank woman and Lotto for the finish. Hard race but very fun. Including some difficult cobble sections

In a second race the next day we worked on the offensive by attacking a lot. We got my teammate solo with 30km to go and so I played defense after that and went to close attacks by other teams. She stayed away and so the team got the win.

Racing in France and Belgium were an amazing opportunity and a great step for my professional career. I was always in the front of the groups and strong enough to attack and close breaks that were dangerous.

Now I am in Italy at my family’s house for some good rest, recovery, and training in the next couple weeks. I will hopefully be doing some more racing and racing in france at the end of August in the Trophe D’Or and the Tour d’Ardeche.