Thursday, April 30, 2015

Another Nice Day in Switzerland

Stage 3 in Romandie greeted us again with nice weather, even nicer than yesterday. I decided I wanted to try for the break and despite a good effort in the beginning, it was ultimately Kristoff who got in. He made a great effort on the day ending up with the Most Combative prize. For me, I think I had a few moments where I felt some glimmers of hope. The most notable of those was on the first of two successive category 2 climbs when the race really got under way. The first was quite a difficult climb really, much harder than on paper and very irregular. There were numerous accelerations and out of rhythm moments, but I was able to follow and produce some power when I was already suffering a lot. That is a good sign that my fitness is there somewhere, it just needs these race efforts to come around. So again, I'm hoping and going day by day! After that first category 2 climb, the peloton was quite reduced and Riccardo and I were the only one's left. We hoped Giacomo could pass the climbs, but the race ended up going too hard. At the end of the descent I was in the rear of the peloton trying to look after Riccardo who had drifted toward the back. There was a narrow passage of cobblestones through town and I came out of it a little off the back. I chased full gas to try and catch on, while thinking Riccardo was on my wheel. Unfortunately he wasn't. I looked back at the base of the climb to see him chasing. I immediately sat up and tried to recover a little. Once he caught me, I went full gas to bring him back. We got close, he jumped across, and I felt cooked. Looking back on it, I wish I had gone a little steadier because the climb was not all that difficult and I think I could've maybe survived it. But hindsight is 20/20. I still pedaled hard to the top in the event we might be able to come back on the descent.

As the group I was with swelled a little, I saw Giacomo and Eugenio were there and knew immediately we needed to try to come back. Eugenio and I got a little help from one or two other guys, but there was no way to make it. Despite our best efforts, the front group was going too fast. We never regained contact and had to settle for a good tempo ride in with the group we had. Tomorrow will hopefully be Giacomo's day. It is the most sprinter friendly stage of the race. Unfortunately the weather looks quite ugly with rain all day. It will be a day to dress warm and hopefully stay alive. Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you're finding your form. It will all come together. A nice Trek breakaway today as you mentioned.

Anonymous said...

Great to hear that you are coming around on the bike. Good luck the rest of the race and on to Cali!