Today was one of those nervous stages, where everyone wants to be at the front of the field. The first 2 KOM's on course today were VERY fast, which broke up the pack. It also allowed about 22 riders to roll off the front of the race, which I didn't participate in. This race is long and hard, and the most important thing was to mark the U23 leader today and conserve energy.
Luckily, 2 nice hard KOM's later in the stage at mile 75 and 90 really broke the field down into it's strong men. I was dying for water all day long--and guess what--the neutral support was out of bottles by mile 80. Wonderful. The very nice man Ben Raby of the Kodak-Sierra Nevada team gave me a much appreciated bottle after a while, thanks much Ben.
Anyways, I still saw the U23 leader of the day in the pack before the final cat 1 climb at mile 90, so I knew that it was in my best interest to stay with the leaders over the climb and get a time gap on the U23 leader. I stayed at the front and dealt with the early climb attacks, and finally settled in for the 25 minute climb with the leaders. We managed to get a good gap over the climb and keep it going paceline style all the way to the finish, securing a good time gap over the U23 jersey and staying close to the leaders on overall GC.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot harder, we'll see how things go here!
In a new jersey, surprised but pretty happy!
Luckily, 2 nice hard KOM's later in the stage at mile 75 and 90 really broke the field down into it's strong men. I was dying for water all day long--and guess what--the neutral support was out of bottles by mile 80. Wonderful. The very nice man Ben Raby of the Kodak-Sierra Nevada team gave me a much appreciated bottle after a while, thanks much Ben.
Anyways, I still saw the U23 leader of the day in the pack before the final cat 1 climb at mile 90, so I knew that it was in my best interest to stay with the leaders over the climb and get a time gap on the U23 leader. I stayed at the front and dealt with the early climb attacks, and finally settled in for the 25 minute climb with the leaders. We managed to get a good gap over the climb and keep it going paceline style all the way to the finish, securing a good time gap over the U23 jersey and staying close to the leaders on overall GC.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot harder, we'll see how things go here!
In a new jersey, surprised but pretty happy!
Bret remembering the pain of stage 3
Alex and I on the way to the stage
2 comments:
so did you get a nice little kiss from the podium girls?
They giggled at me, and put the jersey on...
But unless I take the UW mode of story telling, no kisses landed on these cheeks.
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