<blockquote style="border-left: #5555EE solid 0.2em; margin: 0em; padding-left: 0.85em">From: fruit@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: huan_dinh@xxxxxxxxxxx,
Subject: ciao everybody!
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:54:13 +0000

Hello Huan and everybody!
I am OK!
thank you for checking in for me.
Unfortunately I had to abandon PBP.
I did that in Carhaix, when I was almost halfway
through. It was 4pm and the temperature was 52F
with a really strong wind blowing in your face and
lots and lots of rain all over. at that point i
had been riding in the rain for 12 or 13 hours and
it didn't seem to stop. However I had to bandon
anly because i was developing a lung infection or
bronchitis or something like that. during the last
stage i started  coughing and spitting stuff and
it didn't sound a good idea to ride into a colder
temperature during the upcoming night.
I am sure that things would have been only worst
and i would have ended up in a hospital with
bronchitis. The same thing happened earlier this
year in Sebring 24h, when unsually cold and windy
and rainy conditions forced me to stop with only
two hours to go.
with my two brothers-in-law, who were supporting
me, we found shelter in a hotel, ate some good
food and now I am already almost fully recovered
and doing well.
Until before stopping I was doing fairly well. I
didn't start with the first group, however, I was
trailing behind them pretty much at the same speed
and i had about 100 riders in front of me. I was
counting on catching up on them in the second half
of the ride (in Boston-Montreal-Boston i did well
in the second half of the ride!), but
unfortunately that didn't happen.
I feel bad and disappointed about the outcome,
because I trained hard for this event and I had
high hopes of doing well.
You all out there helped me a lot with the tuesday
and thursday rides, which have always been a great
training!
I went to the finish line earlier this afternoon
and apparently the first ten riders were a group
of all french riders. The faces of the 3 or 4
riders we watched come in were pretty intense!
This is a hard ride to complete with perfect
weather, and this year the weather was the worst
they have ever seen.
Chapeau to everybody who finishes this epic ride!
tim bol from orlando (#1994) is should be in
anytime now, two hours ago he was at the last
checkpoint in dreux.
I will follow also the Stevens and Jim Wilson and
Barb. It is still rainign here in Versailles now
and it does not seem to want to stop.
Look forward to coming back to the SUNSHINE STATE!!!
CIAO,
ANDREA

</blockquote>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe from GCCMail, please go to http://gccfla.org/.
Point to Members Area, and click on GCCMail.  Use the form on the page.