Debuting the Jersey in France

The first stage of Dauphine today was short and fast. It was a non-traditional circuit race, which was kind of interesting. It is always nice to be familiar with a course when racing on it. The day started with a flurry of attacks and four guys eventually got away. Things looked interesting for a little while as the time gap steadily rose with no one wanting to take up the chase. The poker game ended though when the gap got to 7 minutes. Then the chase was on. I was a bit skeptical of the break coming back, but after I saw how quickly the time fell once the chase started I was pretty sure things would come back together, which they did on the last lap. The circuit was not easy though, and it was a reduced group contesting the sprint. We had orders to keep our GC guys (Haimar and Bauke) safe, so that was the main goal for today.

It was a mostly uneventful stage for me, minus a flat tire on the second circuit that left me chasing for a good bit. And I had an untimely loss of position during a bottleneck before the final circuit, so I also had to chase the front of the group over the last climb. I stayed with a few other chasers just off the back at the top and we came back without a problem. Then it was onto the finish and happily climbing aboard the bus safe and sound. Random thing happened today too that I didn’t know about until the finish: broke my saddle rail completely in half. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture, but evidently my steady diet of doughnuts and cheese curds is too much for the weight limits of our saddles! I have no idea when it happened, but I’m guessing it was one of the many speed bumps we went over today. Ok that’s all!