Dauphine stage 1

Stage 1 of the dauphine libere is in the books and was another quiet day for the liquigas cannondale boys. As usual we just kept ivan out of harms way up the front and then see what happened on the final climb. We were a little to relaxed with this in the final 20 very stressfull km before the climb to the finish and got in not the greatest position which was far to far back. I usually dont enjoy the first day of tours, everybody is fresh and strong and consequently everybody will fight to be at the front. As the race goes on and the bunch gets tired the fighting subsides to a certain degree and if you have good condition you can more easily stay up the front. Unfortunately for me at this race i am here to regain my condition so i will be on the suffer train all week to stay up front, thats a good thing however as you need to teach the legs to suffer from time to time and i have not done it for a while.

Anyway back to today we were just minding our own business toward the back of the bunch waiting for an opportunity to move up on the final climb but a crash at 8km to go at the start of the climb stopped us litterly in our tracks and while we chased for a few km to get back up front the big guns were long gone and we just took it easy for the final few km. Ivan is here to prepare for le tour so he is more than happy keeping a low profile for now. For me was a good day as far as another good hit out for my sleeping system and ready for a bit more of it tomorrow.

Cjw
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