Thursday, May 14, 2009
Asturias !
Just got back from the Vuelta Asturias a 5 day 2.1 stage race in Spain and the Subido Naranco, a 1.1 one day race the day after also in Spain.
I had a few problems a few weeks back with my knee again so I didn’t get much training done. So naturally I was going into this race with not much condition, but I was healthy and fit. I just wanted to get the race in my legs and find some form.
First day, lots of attacks in first few kilometres saw a group of around 25 go away after 20kms. I was there with 1 team mate. The group was a bit too big and wasn’t really working. I thought I may as well try an attack and see what happens. I ended up going away with 3 others and getting a gap of 8 mins. A good day out already, good TV time and good exposure for the team. We were about 30kms from the finish and we still had 5 mins on the peloton. Sooner or later my lack of condition caught up with me and I had a “massive death”. The last 25 kms looked flat in the race book but it wasn’t to be. 2 guys went ahead to fight out for the win and 2 were dropped and caught by the bunch, unfortunately I was one of the unlucky 2! Never the less it was a good day out!
The next day was a hard day with 3 categorised climbs. My legs weren’t good after my day out yesterday, really bad at the start but I rode into it towards the end of the stage. An early break went with a team mate David O’Loughlin and got a few mins on the peloton. The leaders (rock racing) controlled the race well, brought the race together for the last 2 climbs a d delivered Oscar Seville to the line for there 2nd stage win in as many days. I did my best in the run in, taking our GC men to the front and riding for as long as I could on the climb. With no GC ambitions in mind I rode in a few mins down in the gruppetto.
We did a bit of a test after this stage on our new Max Gear compression tights. We decided not to wear them for the day and see if we could notice a difference. We were all convinced off a big difference. We all found we had a lot more water retention In the legs and just felt generally stiffer and more tender the next morning. We wouldn’t be doing that test again!!!!
The 3rd day was a bit of a nightmare, we woke up to thunderstorms and a lot of rain. Today was a split day with a 90km road stage and a 14km tt. It would have been easy to put a rain jacket on today and just be happy to finish and stay out of trouble but today was our big chance of a win, with such a short stage it was more or less going to be a bunch sprint. So it was full gas for Nico for the finish. It was a technical finish which we didn’t really know so we decided to get Nico to the front and leave him to do his stuff on his own. Myself, Dave and Steven Van Vooren did a good job getting him up there but unfortunately no result today! Big disappointment for us, but we gave it everything we had! The TT was a formality for me, with a kind 40% time limit (the amount of time we can loose to the winner before being kicked out the race) around 7 mins I cruised round the TT and got ready for the next day!
Stage 4 was a “proper” mountain stage with 3 HC climbs. Today was all about survival and getting to the finish inside the time limit. Half way up the first “berg” the gruppetto was called and a nice group of about 30 riders formed and rode at our own pace to the finish within the time cut. Still a tough day with over 50km of categorised climbing and over 5hrs in the saddle.
The last stage, normally a formality after yesterdays stage had more or less decided the GC, Mancebo of rock racing had the jersey so normally they would control the race, let a small group get a few mins and bring it together for the finish. There were 3 categorised climbs today but nothing as savage as yesterday. My legs were pretty sore but I thought I may as well have a bash early on. First attack of the day was from possibly the smallest guy in the race, a little Columbian guy, I went after him after 2ks and we quickly got a min on peloton. Luckily after a few more k’s 3 more riders came up to us, they were a bit bigger than this little fella so a bit more shelter was nice. There were no GC guys there so I thought we were gone again for the day. We hit the first climb of 10ks with 2 mins; half way up the gap was 1 min. The race was on behind. We battered over the hill and got to the top just before the peloton. The group was split to pieces and I immediately knew today was going to be tough. The whole day was attack after attack, windy sections, hills and descents. No rest today. What we all thought would be a steady day turned out to be the hardest day of the race! The finish was hard, 3 or 4 1km hills. Too many for me!
So that was the end of the tour, but we still had 1 more day of racing to go. The 1.1 ranked Subida Naranco. It was in the same region of
I was really really tired today and wasn’t to motivated to race. I thought I would give it all to get up the road early on and then just see how far I could get in the peloton if not.
So for the 3rd time this week I was away in the break and 9 mins up on the peloton. I was absolutely knackered and didn’t know what I was doing! There was a long way to go and a lot of meters of climbing also. I was pretty certain I wasn’t going to get to the finish in this group so gave it everything to try to win the intermediate sprint competition and get myself on the podium. My plan worked and I won it! After the sprints I was more than spent and dropped off the back of the break on the 2nd climb of the day. I kept plugging away on my own and somehow managed to stay clear until the 2nd to last climb. I was caught and dropped immediately and rode in a few mins behind truly dead! Another good day out, more TV time a trip to the podium and a good suntan!
I came out of the 6 days tired but not totally kapot so hopefully after a bit of a rest the legs will be good and some results will come!
