I'd heard lots of guys say the finish at Green Mountain was tough, and they weren't kidding! Today was probably the queen stage of the Tour of Oman; although, tomorrow's stage is not anything short of hard either with 3 climbs in 30km, the last of which crests with only 10km to the finish. Anyhow, today's stage was worthy of "queen-dome" in my book. There was a good flurry of attacks to start the stage, which was a nice change of pace from the first few stages where the break rolled pretty quickly. Rast got himself into the break with 3 others including one of my training partners Brent Bookwalter. The four guys rolled a high pace, so that meant behind we had to roll fast as well. The pace was high all day and the pressure on until the final climb.
The run into the final climb got pretty heated as teams tried to put their riders into place. Our team did a good job of putting Fabian and Tony into a good position for the start. At the bottom, SaxoBank smacked it. Matti Breschel went absolutely full gas; the field exploded. I had good position but not good enough as I wasn't in the initial first group. I was with the 2nd/3rd group for the majority of the climb, but it split into several pieces along the steep slopes. Tony had made the initial split, but he didn't seem to have good legs today, so he fell off the pace quickly. I came up to his group, but he didn't ask me for help, so I decided I should set my own rhythm. I rode on my maximum for the whole climb. Initially I was making ground on the leaders, but by the top, I had lost ground and been caught by some guys from behind. I was happy in the end though because I know I did my best, and I feel good about where my fitness is for the first race of the season. I hope I can recover well and be there again tomorrow because I'm sure there will be some fireworks!
The run into the final climb got pretty heated as teams tried to put their riders into place. Our team did a good job of putting Fabian and Tony into a good position for the start. At the bottom, SaxoBank smacked it. Matti Breschel went absolutely full gas; the field exploded. I had good position but not good enough as I wasn't in the initial first group. I was with the 2nd/3rd group for the majority of the climb, but it split into several pieces along the steep slopes. Tony had made the initial split, but he didn't seem to have good legs today, so he fell off the pace quickly. I came up to his group, but he didn't ask me for help, so I decided I should set my own rhythm. I rode on my maximum for the whole climb. Initially I was making ground on the leaders, but by the top, I had lost ground and been caught by some guys from behind. I was happy in the end though because I know I did my best, and I feel good about where my fitness is for the first race of the season. I hope I can recover well and be there again tomorrow because I'm sure there will be some fireworks!
2 comments:
Woo, hoo! Great job. Your posts make me feel as if I'm there. Keep up the good work both on and off the bike.
You are looking good! Results show you have your nose in the hunt. Keep up the good work and best of luck in the final stage.
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