Dauphine stage 2

They say all good things must come to an end and unfortunately somthing i have been very proud of myself this season quite litterly came crashing down for me today! My no crash season came to an end with 20km to ride in stage 2 of the dauphine libere. The crash fortunately caused me no damage and just the tiniest little bit of bark of my knee and elbow so was just my pride and the harsh realisatio that i would not be getting through the 2011 racing season with introducing myself to in this case the foot path. The incident was entirely my own fault as i was moving up though the bunch and we suddenly entered a small french town with roundabouts and plastic poles and got knows what else they put down for us to hit and sure enough there was a crash infront of me and i had no option but to head for the foot path and somehow over or undercorrect and ended up on the ground, bugger!! Anyway the crash was the least of worries, the flat rear tyre as a result of locking up the back wheel and needed to be changed held me more and as fait would have the chasing teams diving the peleton decided to step on the gas in the crosswind section splitting the field and leaving me flagging in the cars trying to re enter the first peleton i came accross. Fortunately i had the king company of 30 or so gentlemen for the final 10km whom had been caught out by the split. My big frustration was my inability to re enter the main field and help out our sprinters for the day but on this occasion the cyclings gods simply has me penciled in for an arrival in the gruppeto or autobus being the final group on the rd. Luckily no injuries so onwards and upwards for tomorrow's tt.

So now its time for somthing i personaly enjoy, a longish transfer back to the hotel in our snazzy team bus. Today we have about 1hr 30min which is perfect for me. First we have a nice hot shower and We have our special rice our team chef prepares for us, a drink and then i do some stretching. Its the perfect time to stretch because you are not in a hurry to go anywhere. After that i catch up on the newspapers back in aus on my kindle ebook and if i feel for it spend some time knocking dudes out in fight night on my psp. So really it is a very enjoyable experience for me, being an aussie i always claim the back seat of the bus so i can lay down and stick my legs in the air. I dont know why it is but i am told the aussies always inhabit the back of the bus, i guess it is our rebelious inner instinct coming out in us from the days of back seat bullies on the school bus. No for me it is a chance to have a bit of quiet time and leave my other team mates to the front seats as they chat away. Everybody certainly seems to enjoy the bus ride which is fortunate because we spend alot of time on it during the season.

Another cool thing about the liquigas cannondale set up is our team chef. He arrived yesterday and it is my first ever race with a team chef. He whips up my favourite daily ommlette of 4 egg whites with ham which i add to the perfectly cooked italian pasta. It is one thing for teams to have a chef but to have an italian chef i think is really really cool. For dinner again the pasta and rice is cooked perfectly, amazing how the italians can make the simplest things taste so dahm good. Nice thick juicy eye filet steak which melts in your mouth and he even manages to make vegetables taste good which i thought was impossible. The special rice after the stage also is a real hit with everybody and i can see myself using it as extra motivation when we hit the mountain stages in the coming days knowing that its waiting for me on the bus. Yep we are pretty spoilt so i hope in the coming days we can repay the team for giving everything we could imagine for to help and get some good results.

Bus rides nearly done and then massage and a delicious dinner!!

Cjw
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