Life is full of uncertainties..nothing is a sure thing

There were 2 certainties late last week...Ben would be out there doing his very best to get a great result in the Aus Mountain Bike Marathon Champs  and in  3 weeks I'd in Europe.

A  buckled  wheel following a fall in the Marathon race yesterday scuttled Ben's chances
My travel plans hang in the balance 'cos of an ash cloud.

In the worst case scenario, with only 6 of our 32 riders in the group NOT coming from Aus or NZ, clearly La Bella Italia tour could not go ahead (or not as originally planned) if we're  unable to get into Europe by 14th May  and  with Rome airport closed late yesterday I began thinking about  plan B ...juuuuust in case. After all the longer the travel ban goes on, the longer the backlog clearing will take..so to my mind every day the airports are closed will take 2 to clear and my nominal travel day is but 19 days away (8th May).

The following is from Singapore airlines whose only European destination currently is Athens: "Updated: Singapore Airlines will extend the period of its waiver of cancellation and change fees for confirmed tickets to and from Europe. The waiver, which is valid for tickets issued up to and including 15 April 2010, will now be for travel up to and including 02 May 2010". 


With this in mind I started looking at the race program for May... perhaps I should  buy a UCI legal base bar for the TT bike since maybe I will be able to get a road TT or 2 in after all!

Liz to Eyjafjallajökull Volcano please stop!

Yesterday I spent the day at DISC racing the Team Sprint as "Rainbow Warriors" with Shirley (together we currently hold 3 World Records and have been World Champ 12 times) and the 20 lap scratch race and then spent the rest of the day at meetings, chatting to people and handing out cards with this blog address on.  Now that the Nats are over (for me..the sprint races are yet to happen) I can  100% focus on getting ready for my excellent adventure of cycling from Palermo to Como...3000kms over 28 riding days, with 7 rest days scattered over that time. So welcome fellow trackies to my European adventure blog.  FYI my previous blog which tells the tale of  both World Hour Record attempts and the time between can be found at http://onehourrecordattempt.blogspot.com/.  

(Pix copied from boston.com/bigpicture and ultimately the camera of Ulrich Latzenhofer).

But first I have to get there! Check here for some jaw dropping pix.......what awful beauty.  oh to have a camera good enough and the skill to take pix like that!  Also here and here    

A couple of days ago when this all started I felt quite relaxed that with 3 weeks to go til I fly out my travel plans would not be effected by Eyjafjallajökull but as the days go by I'm getting a bit edgy.  The list of airport closures   indicates that its only the northern European ones that are totally closed ...ironically  Iceland's airport  is open, but all depends on wind patterns and strength. I'm flying Singapore airlines to Rome and am comforted by the fact that currently  they are flying into Rome which is where I'm going but will my sister, coming from London be able to join me?