Catalunya stage 5

When I comes to drawing up an easy course at this level, it does not get much easier than today. The first 70km was downhill, a little climb for a few km, then another 70km of predominantly down hill to finish the 150km day off. Add to that a breakaway of only 2 riders heading up the rd meant chasing was not going to be too difficult so was a nice easy day. My team mate daniele ratto galloped to a fine 4th in the bunch sprint and chistiano consolidated his lead further in the mountains competition so was a good day for the cannondale green jersey. It was Crazy easy in contrast to yesterday where we did 5000m of climbing elevation in the pyrenees!

Anyways while it is great for the group to have a bit of recovery after a day like yesterday it also brings with it a renewed freshness in the peleton and the crazy dog fight for front positioning that transpires as a result. Yesterday although hard was easy to stay at the front, you don't get too many who will want to waste energy fighting for the front for too long so for me the hard days are far more enjoyable. Anyways today went straight forward and the break was gently reeled in with around 15km to go. The freddie fresh legs peleton then sprung to life and in the absence of any renowned sprinters it seemed all 160 riders felt they would be in for a chance in a bunch kick. Throw in a roundabout every 1km and it was a dog fight. I am useless in these situations and my politeness and lack of desire to increase the possibility of kissing the ash felt means that I am more likely to give riders space to pass than fight for the wheel. My teammates on the other hand where up the front charging on the front of the bunch relishing in the chaos and gave daniele I the best chance possible to do well in the sprint. Anyways the inevitable finish line was finally crossed and I had all my skin and had freshened up a little so looking forward to the slightly more challenging stages that remain over the weekend.

Cjw  

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