Poland Number One

Stage one of Poland is in the books, and I was able to avoid the rain and crashes. That's about the best I could have expected for today, so I'm happy. The race was rather short at only 101km. It took us only slightly over 2 hours, but it was pretty easy to sit in the bunch. I wasn't very excited to sit in the bunch though because the race was very nervous. It was partly the first stage jitters/freshness, so everyone thinks they can win the race. The other factor was the big roads in the finishing circuit, which were really nice, except that the speed was not high enough to keep it strung out. That meant everyone could rush to the front and be 20 wide across the road in between every corner. That makes the race dangerous and a big dog fight. I fought for a while, but decided it was safer and easier to be out of the unnecessary scrum and not waste my energy for the coming days. 

As for the sensations today, my legs didn't feel bad, but they definitely were a little sluggish with the race speed and some of the efforts. I would say that is to be expected, and I think that after the next two days of flat stages my legs will respond favorably and in time for the critical hard stages of four, five and six. I usually find that my form comes better through a longer race, assuming I am recovering well. I guess we will have to wait and see how it goes!

It's raining out right now, but I believe it is to clear for tomorrow, which would be very nice. It was a long transfer after the stage today, and the transfer to the start tomorrow is supposed to be longer. I'm not excited for that, but I believe after that we have short, easy transfers for the rest of the race. It is always much nicer to transfer less and change hotels less. Alright, time for relaxing. Thanks for checking in.