The first day in the mountains was quite an adventure for me. I had high hopes of going in the days breakaway but unfortunately so did a majority of the peleton. As so often happens in this case there are so many attacks that nothing forms for a long long time until a cease fire is called. This insured today and after 98km one man, jason mc cartny from radio set in in a solo pursuit for glory. Now the route to this occurring was quite an unenjoyable experience for me. On the first climb of the day after just 45km i had already fired a few fatefull useless bullets in attempt to get up the rd. I had arrived at the climb already on the rivit and as it occured just over 12months ago in a race in italy under pretty much the same circumstances i suffered from another asthma attack. So i cant breath but not to worry as fortunately it occurred only 2km from the top of the climb so i started to sand bag back through the bunch to see the doctor, off course due to serious pace the peleton had split and it did not take long for me to fall out the back and of course there was no doctor to be seen. So i am in the second group and try and ignore my breathing for a bit as our small group tries in vein to re enter the front group but to no avail. Next thing the doctor flies by to get to the front group so now i cant breath and have been dropped to the second group so no option but to suffer in silence and take as deeper breaths as possible in the hope that not only we get back on but also i see the doctor's white coupe again! The problem with the asthma/allergy attack is not really the breathing difficulty, well this is a pain but without being able to breath properly you cant get oxygen to the muscles so firstly your going flat out, second you cant breath and 3rd your legs are just gradually loosing more and more power with every pedal stroke so is not ideal experience for the first half of a cycling race! Fortunately after 100km we rejoined the front group and with my eyes firmly on the doctors fancy car i bee lined to it and promtly explained my predicament. Being a very experienced race doctor he simply said he did not think it was asthma but more likely allergy which i had suspected last time it occurred however i was subsequently diagnosed with asthma on that occasion. He gave me an simple anti histamine and sent me on my way. I spent another 50km or so regaining myself a little after the mad first half of the race and started to feel better. By the start of the final climb it had taken me 200km to get to the front but i finally did and amazingly i could breath perfectly and had no dramas Stalin in the front of the main field on the final climb. I was pretty jolly excited at this developement not solely because i was feeling good in the mountains again but a problem that has bugged me for quite a few years was finally solved by the race doctor and a little pink pill.
So to the race, i just assumed my usual role and stayed close to ivan at the front of the group to help him if required and when the hitters lit up the gas with a couple of km to go i realised unfortunately that the fatique from early in the stage had not completely left my aching pins and with ivan safely in the front i sat up to save some bullets for tomorrows very very very difficult mountain stage. I hope a day that should not have the same crazyness of today on my part and a day where i can contribute alot more to the team. It certainly is a relief to have solved this allergy issue that is for sure.
I think the most exciting developement of the day was the clearly evident return of condition for our tour de france captain ivan baSso. He had no trouble staying with the big favourites and rest assured he is going to keep getting alot stronger in the coming days and weeks in training and show why he is such a great cyclist.
So pretty excitning day on all fronts as it certainly finished alot better than it started i am looking forward to getting stuclk into it tomorrow.
Cjw
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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