Racing is in the air finally...you can smell it, taste it, feel it in every part of your body. Anxiety. Excitement. Nerves. It all comes together at the start of the race season. But somehow we always get over it and down to business.
Stage one of Vuelta Mexico today was 100 km of circuits through downtown Oaxaca, 12 laps of 8 km. One nice climb each lap and some nasty ass cobbles and dips made the race harder than I expected, not helped by my stale legs from the lack of riding the past couple of days. You see, AeroMexico airlines neglected to get my bike to me before 9AM the day of the race...we start at 10AM. Needless to say, it was a bit close but at least I was on my own bike and not the neutral.
Lance was in the follow car today with Axel...I guess they got a lot of excitement in the first couple laps of the circuit with Reohei and Julian both crashing, followed by some flat tires courtsey of Phinney and Reohei. The bumps dips were fun enough on a bike, I can't imagine how much air the caravan car got chasing back to the peloton!
Anyway the clmbs were not too bad but I was having one of those days, so I sag climbed each lap and cruised in about 15 seconds down on the main peloton after 100km of racing. Ready to fight another day, looking forward to some of the longer stages--oh yes, such as tomorrow's 205 km stage in the mountains. Hello altitude.
-b-
This is you
- Ryan Baumann
- Madison, Wisconsin, United States
- Finishing up my engineering degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and racing my bike whenever I can.
4 comments:
What was today's stage like?
why don't you just call home and tell me what happens, i am the only one who reads this.
OUCH
I read it since there is no coverage of any race that Lance isn't riding in the US and my work comp doesn't understand Flash.
By the way Ryan, you ride for Trek/Livestrong. Not OUCH. Don't pull for them.
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