Hills, coughs, and rest

So, the Charlevoix Road Race was interesting. Hard from the gun really. Other than the neutral start. Basically we where neutral until we hit the time trial course then the speed picked up and I muscled my way towards the front to have a decent position for the first climb. Then the climb came, and so did the rest of the pack. All the senior 1,2 & 3s plus the juniors all diving through one corner at this climb. Needless to say I was caught a little off guard and got swamped. I knew the climb was long, and many would want to push the pace early to make a selection. So I began moving up through the now very spread out field. As I looked up, I saw more gaps. Basically the field was split in the first 10km. There where now several large groups all over the road. Shit, after bridging up to the third group on the road I found myself unable to close the gap to the next group. As we crested the climb, several of us began to rotate in an attempt to close the gap, working hard, we began to close it down to about 15-20 seconds. But on the rolling, head roads of Charelevoix, with not enough riders working, we never made it. With still only a few of us working and some wanker juniors attacking at every possible chance, I settled myself into a tempo on the front of the group, working with a few other riders not willing to give up. As we descended the valley back down before the Eboulements (a section of 4 walls of climbs) I felt good, definitely tired from these past several weeks of hard training, but good. As we hit the walls, I exploded into a pretty decent coughing fit. Seriously, it sucked. I couldn't shake it for the rest of the race. Needless to say I dropped off my group and mostly held a tempo pace coughing up my lungs for about the next 3 hours. Now back in Ottawa, an back from the doc's, apparently I have asthma. Wonderful news for someone about to leave for a racing stint in Europe. I get to go in for more tests on Wednesday to help document this to the UCI to allow me to use a puffer. Other than that, it was a good weekend. Now I'm down to the last week pre-departure. Off the bike today (super tired) local loop race tomorrow if I feel more rested, medical tests Wednesday and some intervals, motorpacing Thursday and then some easy miles until I leave June 13. Really makes you realize how fast time flies. But at this point, recovery in paramount, gotta have some fresh legs after these last few intense weeks. Ciao for now