Norman, Oklahoma's own Andrea Ratkovic has returned with her new TDS cycling team from Mallorca, Spain, and she's keeping us up- to-date on the day-to-day life of a professional cyclist. She'll provide an updated journal each week on the RTN web site.

Read journal entry #4

I'm out here in Cali racing with my team in the Pomona Valley Stage Race. It is 4 races in 4 days. Yesterday was the 90 minute circuit race, and the temperature was about the same. Whew! The course was extremely technical and dangerous so much so, in fact, that the men's PRO race abandoned. That's right-- every rider quit in protest of the course conidtions. Wussies.

We finished our race but not without some "incidients". There were 99 women who started the race and about 7 who didn't finish either due to mechanicals and/or crashes. There were LOTS of crashes. It sent me into panic mode there for the first 30 minutes or so because the LAST thing I needed to do was go down. I already have a concussion from the dog encounter 10 days ago.

My team got through the race unscathed. After awhile I settled in and started riding more aggressively (my trademark). I even attacked, brought back a break, and was in a break. The worst side effect from my concussion right now is the severe headaches I get when my heartrate goes up. BUT at least I can race, and I'm not a danger to those around me. Yesterday was a testament to that.

Today was the mountain time trial where I placed 13th. That's not too bad. It's not the best for me, but it's good considering my condition and the fact that my bike isn't fitting me properly at the moment. We didn't get our bikes until the day before yesterday, and it was a rush job getting them together and all, so I'm still working out some kinks.

Tomorrow we race over 60 miles. The smog is pretty thick here, and the temperature is high -- neither of which we are used to since we have Canadians and northerners on our team. Well, we have a San Diego gal (who's moving to Boston) and me (from Oklahoma), but we still aren't used to these extreme conditions yet.

Bike racing is extreme, though, in and of itself. Day after day you just endure...