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 #5

Seriously -- I think I left my legs and ass out on the road to Oak Glen yesterday because they are NOWHERE to be found today!! My team and I are out here in Redlands, CA. competing in the Redlands Classic. 140 women started this race, and we are down to less than 100 now. There have been crashes, abandons, and time cuts.

One of my teammates had a good ride the other day, and so we are riding for her now. She has the best legs, and she's certainly climbing the best out of all of us. So, we decided we'd save some of the team to help her at the end (a 10K mountain climb -- Oak Glen), and the other 3 would race aggressively to try to get into breaks and to shake things up a bit. Of course, we anticipated that other teams might have the same idea in mind, but this wasn't the case. My team rode very very hard, and we paid for it today, but that is what we are suppose to do. Our top rider is doing well, and we are doing our best to ensure that she does.

Today, though -- let me tell you about today. LOL!! I could hardly get my scrawny self up these hills, and they were some STEEPass hills. My whole body was burning. I felt like Tanya Harding and Layla Ali ganged up on me while I was sleeping. At times I just felt like I was laying on my bike. If my Achilles wasn't hurt I'd have probably run up with my bike and gone faster. I'm beyond frustration at this point and delirious with laughter. You know, there's nothing I can do, and it's stupid to get mad about it.

Tomorrow is another day, and all I've done today is eat. I have no apetite, but I know that I must eat -- something I CLEARLY have not being doing enough of! I am concentrating on getting more protein. It's funny how you THINK you're getting enough of what you need, but really most times you aren't when you really look at it, and in stage racing you must be vigilant about taking in the right amount of carbs, fats, and protein. It's a big pain in the ass is what it is, and I've been stupidly lax in that department. I forgot how brutal stage racing was.

Come Sunday, I will have raced for 10 days with only one day off (easy spinning). Then it's off to Australia baby! It's not in my character to be satisfied with being in the laughing group, but my team captain reassured me that my time will come. She also reminded me of how hard I raced yesterday. I essentially buried myself. Did I need to? Probably not, but I need to race as hard as I can right now because this will show me what I need to work on. It also hurts everyone else and hopefully gives my high placed teammate an easier ride.

The thing about bike racing is that it is truly a team sport. Riders sacrifice every ounce of their own energy in order to provide energy to one member of the team. With our team, this member will change throughout the year depending on the type of race and who is riding the best. It is truly an uplifting experience to give everything you have for another human being. It's painful but rewarding. Then again, isn't everything worth having?

Andrea