Today’s stage profile had a menacing shape. Even with only 3
categorized climbs, we knew that we could be in for a day of suffering,
depending on how we raced it.
We anticipated another big fight for the break, and wanted
to have somebody in it. If the race exploded on the first cat 1 climb, we’d at
least have one guy on the other side to help Warren into the finishing climb.
I made sure to be on the front line at the end of the
neutral section—you know, just in case it was the first break that went (a guy
can hope, right?). The attacks kept going, and I was doing my best to hold
myself back. My legs felt good again, but I had to be smart to not destroy
myself and then not make the break, in case the race blew up later. I would
only go with one or two attacks at a time before taking a breather in the
field. After about 15km, I made one real attempt at the break, nearly matching
my 5-min power record. After that, I gave up hope on the breakaway. It was hard
enough just sitting in the field.
When 30km had passed by without the break being established,
we decided to take control of the front to keep things together for the
intermediate sprint in 5km. The field welcomed a brief respite while Tobias and
I set a good tempo. Everyone knew that the break would go just on the other
side of the sprint, so Johannes was resting up for it. John won the
intermediate sprint, padding his lead over Valverde with another handful of
points.
Sure enough, a group of 24 got away (with Johannes in it)
immediately after the sprint. Tinkoff was still setting a pretty good pace to
hold the group around 6 minutes.
After the cat 2 climb, I saw that I was already at 2500kJ
burned, and we were still at the bottom of the stage profile! The pace Tinkoff
set for the first 10km of the giant climb was manageable. I had started in the
center of the field and drifted back as guys worked their way up the sides. The
climb was gently rolling upward, so I was looking for a flatter spot to make a
move back to the front with the others. Before I could do that, OPQS took the
front and proceeded to shred the field. I was able to get to the front group as
guys continually peeled off, but the effort to get back to the front was a bit
too much for me.
The group I found myself in as we crested the top 4-5
minutes behind the GC group was about 30 riders, including Koen. We had 60km of
low-grade descending ahead of us. For about 40km we actually had the whole
group rotating through. It wasn’t so hard to pull through because the group had
so much momentum. With all of us working, we were steadily making up ground on
the GC group. Eventually some guys got too excited and upped the pace when we
were just 1:30 back, at which point only a half-dozen riders were still working.
Oh well.
Suddenly we found ourselves just 3km from the finish of a
really tough day. We could see the 1km to go banner waaaaay up on the mountain,
and couldn’t fathom how it there was only 2km of pavement to get there.
Then we reached the proper climb. That son of a gun was
steeeeeeep. It took 360w for me to turn a 34x28 at 55rpm. It was the sort of
climb that wears your arms out as well as your legs. I watched as a handful of
guys from our group got pushed halfway up the mountain by spectators, but I’m
proud to say that I got to the finish completely under my own power!
Up the road, the plan had gone perfectly. Tobias got over
the top with Warren, and they were joined by Johannes when he sat up out of the
break. They delivered him to the steep slopes with the GC favorites and let him
go on to another solid finish.
All was not well, though. Lawson has been in the hurt locker
for days and found himself in the cars early on. He fought all the way to the
top of the cat 1 climb until he was talked off the bike. We’ll definitely miss
him in the final week, but he can be proud of all he’s helped us accomplish so
far.
As for me, today set personal records in TSS, kJ burned
(5800), and power records of 4.5-6 hours.
Good thing the last week of the
Vuelta is the easiest, right?
14 down, 7 to go!
