Thursday, March 15th “Point your ass uphill, Mandy!”

The 4k Prologue to the Vuelta Ciclista a El Salvador is an out-and-back offshoot road in what will soon be a suburban development. No word yet on where the Starbucks will be located.
I get a shoddy warm-up (no trainers or rollers), and am 20th off the start line. Kathleen goes off 10 minutes before me and rocks her TT, and I try to do the same. Oops, I didn’t. But it was better than expected. The “out” part is uphill, and a long slog at that. My 1-minute girl is an Italian with a good-sized derriere (almost as big as mine), so I couldn’t pray to catch her on the “back” (downhill) with her full TT setup. I have clip-on bars. But that’s okay…I still beat half the field. That’s me…Ms. Middle Ground.
The ladies do pretty well. Andrea and I are within a few seconds of one another, and Anna scores a rockin 7/8th place (tied with Jeannie Longo for 7/8 but they put the Olympian above Anna. Must have to do with racing age?). Impressive.
We get back to the INDES, I do some more chilling out and reading (haven’t turned on the tv yet), and Anna rides the rollers donated by Victor, the director of the Guatemalan team (who is voted “cutest boy there” by the Costa Ricans and Brazilians). We head to the mall again to load up on fresh food instead of INDES beans/meat/rice offerings (but I’m still chowing down), and then come back for beddybye. Big day tomorrow!

Victor himself