It was a pretty big day for the cycling world today, stage 3 of the dauphine was the exact course of this years tour de france. For all the big gc hopefulls it was an important test to see how they would fair on the course that could well decide the winner of this years tour de france. The german tony martin demolished the field today and not only can i see on the results sheet that he put a whopping 4min 10sec into me but i was one of the poor buggers that started infront of him and he caught and past me like i was standing still after only half the course completed. I am going to need to ask for my helmet back tomorrow because he sucked it off me as he went flying by, he is a perfect example of german power and it was interesting basso telling me a similar story about ullrich passing him for 4min enroute to victory in the 03 tour de france tt, sure at a completely different unimagineable level for me but martin is certainly a very impressive beast on a bicycle. I guess one positive outcome was i was atleast consistent only loosing another 2min in the second half aswell. Yes my lack of condition was my first problem today but when i once felt most comfortable against the clock i have not felt like that for a long time. I have certainly neglected the hard training on the tt bike in the past and used the theory of close enough is good enough for the position. I realised today i need to get back ontop of this dicipline and do the work required. I recieved my new tt bike this week so now i have that i will take it out for a nice long ride in the italian country side with a set of allan keys and get comfortable. After that i plan on going to the veledrome to test the position with our team trainer paolo slongo and if i am real lucky i might even get the full treatment and get some time in the wind tunnel. These days no amount of research or refining can be spared when it comes to the tt equipment especially with what you see teams roleing around on these days. Ok certainly my first prolem is my lack of strength at the moment but i was able to maintain the steady pace i set out with so aslong as i continue to keep building from here i should have my condition back some stage soon.
The course for me was deceptively difficult for me through the vast changes in rythm. The flats and decents were super fast and the climbs atleast for me were super slow, i may have got my gearing ratio a little wrong as i was spinning like an egg beeter on the downhills and grinding away like a very weak tired old steam roler on the climbs. Anyway as they say its the race of truth and i certainly found out today that i have a few more suffering days to put myself through before i start to feel good on the bike again.
So from here we face the final sprint stage tomorrow before the mountains begin on friday, i am certainly looking forward to that as even though i am aware i am in for a large amount of suffering the prize of suffering hopfully less next time you race is always worth it!
Cjw
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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