Just a short report today, for a
short stage.
We got a lap of the course in this
morning. Once again, the course profile was incredibly misleading. If they
tried to present that profile to an engineering professor, they’d be very
disappointed in their grade. Scale, scale, scale!
What looked like a fairly flat
course was actually either up or down with very little flat in between. What
was obvious, though, is that the possibility of rain would seriously affect the
outcome on the technical course.
Warming up for TT’s is the most
bizarre part of bike racing for me. The best part of riding bikes is actually
moving, so I naturally hate trainers. But there I am, pedaling and going
nowhere. While I’m coming to terms with the necessity of this misery, there are
complete strangers just arm’s length away looking at me and taking pictures
like I’m a zoo animal, and all I can do is just pretend that they aren’t there.
After 3 weeks of racing, I don’t have
much left in me, so I certainly didn’t want to leave my best effort on the
trainer. I opted for a longer, easier warmup instead.
All was good until I got to the
start house and it started to rain. I immediately reached over and lowered my
tire pressure. On that course, it was impossible for a wet time to come close
to the top of the leaderboard, but I gave it my best try anyways.
I didn’t take crazy risks, but I
definitely pushed the tires at times. I wanted to have a more steady effort,
but with the rain, I was just sprinting from corner to corner. By the time I
was through the corner, I was recovered and ready to sprint again.
In the end, I finished 1’04” down
on the winning time. I actually had a really good ride with good power numbers,
and I’m pleased with my ride technically. Among everybody who raced in the
rain, I finished quite near the top, so I can’t be too disappointed. I did everything under my control perfectly,
but there’s nothing I could do about the weather. Oh well!
But then Wawa had the ride he
needed to hold on to 8th on GC, and John won the points competition!
4 wins, a top-10 on GC, and the Green Jersey?! I’m scared that the bar has been
set unreasonably high for all future Grand Tours!
And just like that, it’s over. It’s
going to feel really weird for the next few days, I think, as I adjust to life
outside of this bike race again. Nothing important has happened while I’ve been
away, right?
