In the last week I’ve had a light flu. It started last Monday with a strong allergic reaction, probably caused by the pollen in the air. I have always had a lot of trouble with allergies, and there is not really too much to do. Most of the drugs we can take are not good for the riding, so I normally try to avoid them. In this case though, I should have been using them!
On Tuesday my sneezing turned into coughing, although I was still feeling just fine. I had to cut out all intensity in my training, but I still managed a few decent rides, including a really fun MTB ride on the circuit for the upcoming Grand Fondo de Montello. The course was just full of fun single track sections (… too bad it actually rained on Sunday for the race, and they had a horribly muddy course instead!)
So, hoping for the best, I traveled with the team down to Tuscany which was where the weekends Liquigas Cup was. But it was that morning that I started feeling the worst, and sure enough by the evening I had fever and spent 2 days in the bed instead of racing. I watched the race out of the hotel window and it was once again a fine battle between Julian Absalon and Marco Bui, with Julian coming out on top for the second week running.
Saturday afternoon I was feeling better, but my manager told me that I should go home, recover properly and don’t worry about next weeks races. We have the first world cup in 2 weeks, and this is the priority. So, now I am back home again, and today I rode 4hrs to try and sweat out some of the crap that’s in my body. If I’m strong again tomorrow I will know that all is okay.