Saturday, July 12, 2014

First Big Mountains

Today the Tour headed into the first real mountains. The stage started with a furious fight for the break. We tried to get someone in, but it was very difficult. I never even saw the front of the field as I simply tried to find my legs. Eventually they started to feel ok, but I couldn't move to the front as we ripped through small villages and the pace strong the field out. Once the break went the field relaxed a bit. The break was given a good (winning) gap and I was a little disappointed that I was a day early. That's how it goes though. As we approached the first of the three finishing climbs, the clouds got dark and the rain started. I picked the worst time to go for my rain jacket because the pace increased for the positioning battle to the base of the first climb and there was no way for me to move from the back of the field, especially on the wet roads. Admittedly I feel a little bit more nervous at the moment. Once we hit the base of the climb I knew I'd never see the front of the race again or be able to help my teammates in any way, so I pulled the plug and tried to save as much energy as possible for the coming days. The next two stages are going to be real challenging and I sure hope we get a small break from this bad weather, but it's not looking promising I don't think. We'll keep battlIng though.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe tomorrow is your day. Go, go, go.

Anonymous said...

Sound a like a good approach--rest a bit and then gun it in the days ahead. It's been great watching you in the breaks.