Ecuador: Racing, training, meeting incredible people!

Wow Ecuador. What an amazing country. It´s been 3 weeks already since I arrived to the high city of Quito. My new team mates met me at the airport and have taken superb care of me since my arrival. The location of the place I´m staying at backs onto an incredible park with plenty of mnt bike and running trails just right out side the door. It´s hard to believe such a place exist right in the center of this beautiful city! The first couple of days I was just getting use to being at the elevation of 2800m let alone trying to bike or run at this height. My days consisted of training in the morning with one of the guys and then I´d go to spanish class for 4 hours everyday. The 2 weekends I had before the race we ventured out more into the mountains for some longer bike rides and then to climb up high to one of the refugees and sleep at 4700m for some last acclimatization. My first weekend was a real eye opener as to how much climbing you can do here and how incredibly long the descents were. I also experienced the real intensity of the sun and burnt the top of my hands badly. It was awsome to get out with the team and to see just how strong these guys were. Especially on the bikes! I instantly loved these guys. They had great attitudes and personalities and were very focused in doing the very best they can in this race! I just hoped that it would all fall into place and that there be no injuries or sickness or major mechanicals issues and hopefully I could keep up?....