Dauphine prologue

Today the dauphine libere got under was in the french alps with a 5.5km prologue. The race is the traditional tune up for a large majority of the tour de france overall contenders and also an opportunity for those aiming for a start in le tour to show there condition so the standard is always very high.

I come to the race with no spercific ambitions as after 1 week off the bike last week i need to get the system firing again after my little battle with suckness over the past few weeks. I certainly got off to a good start in the suffering stakes with the start of the course consisting of a 1km climb at 6% so certainly by the top of that i knew i was back in a bike race. I roled around the remainder of the course as best i could and certainly knowing that the suffering was important to get the system a little more prepared for the week ahead. In the end i was 25sec down which is not a great result of 5.5km but certainly could have been worse so am confident that all the work done prior to being crook has not deserted me but may take a few days to get it back out of my body. It was the first prologue i had done since the giro last year but as a prologue is about as close as you can get to a rowing race in time and intensity when flat that is, with todays climb it makes them a more different animal but i feel like i have a little confidence with regard to what i need to put my body through. Being so long between drinks on the prologue front i was a little rusty on the techniqual side of things but that will come back pretty quick. The day for the liquigas cannondale team did not get off to a great start with one of our team car cleaned up by a wayward french courier vehicle on the auto strada. Fortunately neither party were hurt but both cars were a right off. Not only was it unfortuate for the fate in inconvenience of smashing up two vehicle but we had decided to ride to the start so long as it did not rain as it was 55km away which would normally be the perfect warmup. Unfortunately it started pouring rain shorly after the car got cleaned up and after on 5km so we had 50km to ride to the start in pouring rain, unfortunately this usually beneficial ride turned into more of a cool down as the muscle's and system does not like the rain that much. Anyway you just have to stay as positive as possible and adapt to any situation cycling throws your way. All in all, all us boys in green did as best we could considering the circimstances and i hope was can put the day behind us and have a much more productive week out on the open rd and when we go into the high mountains.

So the dauphine is underway and with rain forcast for the week it could certainly be interesting, i am hoping the body will keep opening up and hope to have a bit of a go later in the week.

Cjw
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