Whoa. Glad to be done with that. After an overly aggressive stage 5 to Brasstown where I rode a bit too hard a bit too early and a bit too long I was rocked. Went from feeling great on stage 4 to super blown. Up the final ascent of Brasstown I had trouble turning over my 36×25 at times and was basically just running on empty. Luckily on the ascent I got a few good pushes and a nice turbo bottle. Stage 6 started out aggressively and even though I was pretty blown from the previous day I still wanted to give it a go to be in the break. After following numerous moves a group of 3 rolled away with our aggressor Glenn Chadwick in it. Perfect for us and a good thing for me since by the time the break rolled away I was getting close to detonating again. The break narrowly got caught with a few km to go and a bunch kick ensued with our sprinters getting tossed around in the final corner. Downhill corners at 60kph with 300m to go are the reason I’m not a bunch sprinter.(plus I lack fast twitch muscle fibers)
Stage 7 was pretty much survival. Thought I was going to have another go at the break, my first flat tire of the race at the end of the first lap put an end to that. Chasing back on after a wheel change when the group is going 55kph can be difficult. All about finding a nice “soft” bumper to sit on. Soft meaning a driver who will close gaps in the caravan slowly and will rip through the corners but not punch it coming out of them. Basically someone who will bring you back into the fold of the caravan safely and quickly. Thanks to Lotto for that. Euro cars are normally a sure bet to take care of other teams riders in the caravan. They realize that coming back from a flat tire sucks and that their riders will be on the receiving end of your teams bumper at some point. So, while coming back from the puncture I lit what remaining matches I had. Luckily shortly after I came back to the group a small break got away and things calmed down a bit. With a few laps to go I had my second flat tire, a quick front tire pinch flat from hitting a huge hole. Wasn’t quite sure if it was going flat or not until I went into a left hand corner at 40kph. This is where you are thankful to be on tubulars! If I had been on a clincher then I would have crashed for sure, as it was I just had a bit of front wheel washout and slid around the corner. After a horrible Mavic wheel change I got back into it and finally got back into the race after a bit of help from the QuickStep car. Coming into the final circuit I did what I could to help out the sprinters, moved Brooks around a bit to get him up to help Lagutin. Ben Day did some good work for Lagutin on the last lap and got him onto Freddie Rodriquez wheel with 1km to go. Lagu took good advantage of this and came third in the final stage. Sweet! I was nicely destroyed after the race and am just now beginning to feel good. Picked up a bit of a sinus/lung infection half way through the race which really drained me. I’m down in Tucson right now though and I think that the warm desert air is helping to clear things up. Think I might get on my bike today and do a little pedaling…