Monday, May 30, 2011

Tour de Côte d'Or

Had my 3rd tour in a row this weekend, another 3 days of hard racing. But I would defiantly say I enjoy tours more than 1 day races, as I seem to feel really good by the final stages. So anyway on Friday morning we made our way to Dijon for the first stage and after amazing 30 degree weather all week it decided to rain and was only 12degrees at the start which felt a bit odd after the good weather id had all week. the stage started with some hills, got in the first bunch of 20 odd but we were caught on a flat section mid stage, then didnt make the break that stayed away for the win so finished in the bunch.

2eme etape
flat stage bunch stayed together.

3eme etape
Was pretty cool had a 20km team time trial and we even had radios with ear pieces so that the DS could yell at us to go faster the whole time. We only started with 5 as one of our guys was sick and had to pull out the day before so had a wee disadvantage but all good. I found it pretty hard to find my own rhythm as it was only my 2nd ride on my tt bike but was still ok. About 4km from the finish there was a 1km steep climb and we dropped 2 guys so only 3 of us till the end (which was the minimum we had to finish with). We finished 8th out of 22teams.

4eme etape
last stage and was probly the hardest, an early break got away which I didnt try for. Then there was a cobbled section maybe 2km long slightly uphill, I was expecting them to be not to bad but they were massive full on bone jarring cobbles and it split the bunch a bit, luckily i made the front group. Stayed in the bunch till the hardest climb mid race was about 10 guys from the front at the bottom and the guy in third GC a miniature french climber attacked from the front taking one other with him and I went after them but was a bit far back to get on the back so held them all the way up the climb (which averaged about 15 percent ouch) and they pulled away from me over the top and i ended up getting caught by the bunch and they bridged to the front. Annoyed with myself for not being in a better position at the bottom of the climb but owell. finished in a diminished bunch of 30 arriving for 6th place.
Managed 27th on GC.
Again felt great and I have the Legs but I'm just not making the right breaks or being in the right place at the right time.

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