Doing My Part

There wasn't really a plan going into stage 7 other than keeping Chris, Haimar, and Robert safe, but I'd like to jokingly take my piece of the pie for helping set up the winning move. It was a pretty crazy final 50km of racing as we were inside of city streets nearly the entire time. It was turn after turn mixed with roundabouts, some traffic islands, a u-turn, a little time on the highway, and a surprisingly big crowd. I fought hard to stay at the front of the field to be safe and help our leaders. It wasn't the easiest of tasks, that's for sure, but I did manage it pretty well! When things really got heated up in the last 15km, we decided it was time to take the front to try and maintain control of things. I followed the team as we drove the pace. With about 12km to go there was a nice little climb.  Fabian was pulling into the bottom and it was there that I decided I needed to try and do my part for the team by setting a good solid tempo to help keep things strung out, prevent attacks, and keep our guys in good position before the downhill. Everything went well until just at the top when Gilbert attacked with Stybar slightly behind. Our guys were still in good position, so mission accomplished there, but unfortunately that attack ended up being the winning move. The sprinter's teams organized fairly quickly and tried to chase the break back, but the duo was too strong. It didn't matter too much for us because our leaders stayed safe and the real climbing starts today. Send us thoughts of strong legs and motivation! That's all for now.