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To: kanawa
have a friend competing...stayed up all night watching her event.

Cool! Who is she, and what event is she in?

54 posted on 08/10/2008 7:02:55 AM PDT by airborne (American by birth! Christian by choice!)
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To: airborne
Leighann Hobson in the women's road race cyclying event.
It was the final race of her career and also her 38th birthday. :)
We're all proud of her 17th place finish and quite relieved that she made it in one piece.
Much of the race took place under a deluge of rain adding to the dangers of a wipeout.

"It was a very epic race," Hobson said. "They say at the Olympics, everybody puts it all on the line and they're absolutely right.

"It was a fight out there for position from the start, just dog-eat-dog."

Hobson said the riders knew showers were in the forecast, but they sure didn't expect to ride more than half the race in a downpour that turned the course slick and slippery.

"It was just the luck of where you were," Hobson said, referring to Wrubleski's tumble. "You had to be really careful."

At the 77-km mark, Gu Sungeun of Korea, suddenly veered erratically left, then slid headlong - bike and all - into a gutter between the road and a retaining wall. She reached out with her left arm in a vain attempt to prevent or at least soften her fall, but fell hard and awkwardly, and took out four other riders in the bargain.

Wrubelski went down, along with Russian rider Yulia Martisova, in the middle of the road, which looked less painful than that gutter.

Martisova's teammates, Alexandra Burchenkova and Natalia Boyarskaya, got away on lengthy solo breaks during the race, but in the soggy, windy conditions, couldn't sustain their leads. In the driving rain, it proved impossible for a single rider to leave the pack behind for long.

The Canadians had trained in Japan and learned to deal with temperatures of 35 C or more, but on race day in Beijing it was a cool-ish 24 C.

Riding so long in rain-soaked outfits left the riders shivering, not overheated. And the cold was so severe on an 11-km descent that is part of the 23.8-km loop in and around the finish line that some riders stuffed newspapers into their suits as insulation, the way Tour de France cyclists do on descents in the Alps.

~~~

Now that she has finished her cycling career, Hobson, a school teacher on extended sabattical to pursue her Olympic dream, plans to take in the sights with her husband, Jeff, for a week or so before heading home to get ready for school.

She said she leaves pro cycling with no regrets.

"I think I gave it everything I could," Hobson said of her farewell race. "You always look back and say, 'Aw, if only, if only,' but when your legs are going lactic (acid build-up), you know you've done everything you can do.

"I'm very happy. To be here was incredible. I've been on the verge of tears since I got here. It's so emotional, it's such a monumental thing that just to have had the honour to be in this race was amazing."

She talked about missing her teammates, missing the atmosphere around cycling races, cherishing all the sport has taught her.

And will she miss grinding through conditions like Sunday's road race?

"No, I'm going to be looking out the window on days like today, preferably in a warm place."
link


155 posted on 08/10/2008 8:56:29 AM PDT by kanawa (Don't go where you're looking, look where you're going.)
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