Friday, May 1, 2015

Soggy Switzerland

The basic summary of today's stage is rain, wind, and pain in the legs! We woke up this morning (actually went to bed last night) to rain and it hasn't stopped all day. It is always difficult to start a race in the rain, but I'm not sure if that is better or worse than having rain start during a stage. At least before the race you can try to totally prepare yourself with proper clothing and whatnot, whereas mid-race you might end up in a real uncomfortable situation. Whatever the case, I am thankful that today I dressed appropriately and was never cold today. It could've been due to the copius amounts of embrocation cream that were on my legs and back, but I'll hope that my clothing choice was appropriate.

A stage we hoped would be for our sprinter Giacomo ended up being one for the breakaway. I entertained thoughts of going in the break, but after talking about our race plan, it was unlikely I would go in the break. I never really had the opportunity either. Despite starting near the front, I was boxed in until the break was gone. I think I was a little tentative too because of the conditions. Anyway, a break of strong riders got away and they never came back. We chased hard too, or at least it felt that way for me! As for our hope for a sprint, it didn't matter much anyway because Giacomo had some bad luck. He stopped to change his gloves and rain jacket at potentially the worst moment, which he of course couldn't predict. The moment he stopped was the moment the chase really got started and the flatter roads turned to the hilly roads. He did a huge effort to come back to the field, but the energy he spent doing that was the energy he needed later in the race. After it was clear Giacomo was out, we turned to Fabio for the sprint. He made it to the final climb but was gapped off near the top by some guys in front of him. I never saw it because I had been gapped off much earlier by some guys. I was really frustrated to say the least, but I guess it was my fault for being in the back. In spite of this incident I'm happy that I survived some other very trying moments earlier in the race. Tomorrow will be a real test with 4 category 1 climbs on course. If I'm lucky, I might get into the break...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good luck getting into that break. Tomorrow will be your day.