September 12th, 2005 by 
Alisha Little
After living and training in Munich for a month, Joe and I packed up and headed up to N√潞rnberg, Germany to meet up with Team SATS (a Danish based team) for the 116km N√潞rnberg World Cup. I was so excited about racing again and also very nervous because this would be my first race in Europe. I聜脛么ve heard mixed stories from people about racing over here. Some people say that it聜脛么s so scary and so much faster than any of the races in the US, but then others say that it聜脛么s not so bad and it聜脛么s more exciting because there聜脛么s always attacks and it聜脛么s real racing all the time.
So, with a lot of fear from the stories I聜脛么ve heard and a little bit of confidence thrown in from solid training I got ready to race. It made things a lot easier that the girls on SATS were all very welcoming and they all understand English. Three girls are Danish and one girl is from Great Britain. Language barriers are the biggest obstacle over here, so I was happy that at least that wouldn聜脛么t be a problem.
It was a gray, drizzly morning in N√潞rnberg the day of our race. This was definitely NOT welcome as, like in all German cities, there are tram tracks everywhere. We would have to cross tram tracks during parts of the circuit, and if they are wet that makes for some dangerous possibilities. Well, as we were warming up, an official made us cross over the tram tracks to go to the other side of the road. And, as you can guess, they were slick. And, as you can guess my luck聜脛露 I聜脛么m already nervous and scared and not knowing what to expect from this race聜脛露 my wheel slid and got stuck in the tracks. I slid on the wet road on my left side. I scraped my ankle bone bad, along with my hip. My arm also hurt, but it looked like it was just swollen.
With only about 10 minutes before the start of our race, I rode over to the ambulance and had them put a band aid on my ankle. They sprayed some antiseptic cleaner on all of my scraps. I didn聜脛么t say much about my arm because I needed to get to the start.
I was the last rider to make it to the line, so I was as the back of the group before we even started. Great, I told myself. Oh well, nothing I could do about it. The last couple minutes before the start seemed to take forever. Finally we were off.
The first lap seemed completely chaotic. I had to calm myself down for starters. All I could think about the first lap was crashing again. I finally put that out of my mind and began to focus on my positioning. I was definitely more timid about moving about in the bunch, just because it was my first race in Europe. Finally, I realized I could move around just fine, and as the end of the race came and more girls were getting tired I could move around really well. Hmm, I thought to myself, this isn聜脛么t so bad after all聜脛露 I actually kind of like it.
The crowds were HUGE! There were so many people out watching and yelling it was incredible. There was a band playing at the top of the hill on the course, and on another section a bunch of drummers were drumming away. I聜脛么ve never seen such hoop-la over a race聜脛露 not even at the biggest races I聜脛么ve done in the US.
The only bad thing was my arm hurt the entire race. I couldn聜脛么t pull with my left arm at all when I needed to stand up and sprint or go with accelerations. So, in the end, I just rode in with the group instead of trying to be at the front or sprinting.
It was a fast race- we averaged well over 25 mph for 74 miles (116km). One of my teammates is the Danish National Champion and she finished 6th on the day. I was a comfortable 62nd out of over 140 starters. (click here for full results from CyclingNews) Considering the crash I had before the race, I am quite happy with that. And I have to say that I like this European racing stuff after all!