Pia Sundstedt

It starts with the sign in and about 15 minutes before the start the call up starts. I started in the last row and just hoped I would be able to ride up to the font as soon as possible.
The race started with a downhill. I was afraid that there would be the first crash of the day, but no. everyone rode it smoothly and after that I tried to work myself through the bunch. So did everyone else and it was really difficult. Both the left and the right side was blocked and going slalom in the bunch was just impossible. If  rider left even one decimeter of space someone took that place right away. I felt a bit shaky the first laps before I told myself I just have to trust the other riders that they do not make any mistakes. So I managed to relax a bit and not to keep my fingers on the brakes all the time.
10 laps we rode. Sometimes it was so boring. Every now and then during the lap you could hear the speaker. I found myself listening to the speaker and thinking he has to have a great imagination to keep on speaking. I also did not like the climb up towards the finish line. I could just not understand that there was feeding on every lap. Only in the first two laps and the last lap feeding was not allowed.
The road was blocked by the feeders every time we rode that climb. It was impossible to pass anyone or to attack. There were girls grabbing for bottles and other ones trying to pass and get up to the front. What a chaos. I took a bottle after the third and the fourth lap. I just wanted to have it done and not having to think about it later on. 3 bottles for 3 hours, that was enough. It was not a hot day.
In the last lap Holland started to work. They had to catch Clara Hughes. They did and as I had predicted there would be a sprint. A crash on my left hand side, a few meters later again a crash. I could pass them. I was lucky. Tried to do my best in the sprint and finsihed 35th. Happy about that.