Blogs by Professional Cyclists - Professional Cycling Unplugged™

Stage 1 : Paredes De Nava – Baltanás,

Return and Fall of the King

So we lined up for our first assault on Euro soil for 2009 & what was a rather windy day. Also making his first tour debut out of retirement was Lance, he’d also just racked up San-Remo a few days earlier. A small break went from the gun with Paco in it, just like the first stage of Cali Paco was away. The break of four snuck out to 8minutes before Garmin & Astana decided not to give him too much of a long leash this time. The peleton was rather nervous all day with a few crashes but the big one came in the final 20km after a small climb the road stayed narrow across the top & that’s where there was a touch of wheels & a big spill, I was just on the left of it, had the foot out & rode a bit of dirt taking evasive actions but snuck through pretty cleanly. Caught up in the ruble was Lance who after going down just stood up, walked to the side of the road & sat in the ditch clutching his collar bone. He knew what had broken & didn’t bother trying to make any attempts to get going again. In all his years of cycling it was his first busted collar bone! Welcome to the club mate! Back to the race though the break was reeled in with about 8km to go & the remaining field rocketed towards the finish on the downwards slopes. David Vitoria narrowly missed the win getting piped on the line.

Stage 2 : Palencia – Palencia,  

Rollin it Old School

 Well no guesses how this TT was going to pan out! Levi & Alberto knocked off the  top two spots with ease. It would have been good to see Lance roll this one to  gauge his form against his two team mates. With the Astana lads I guess it’s a  matter of win the TT, get the yellow then ya team mate has to ride for you? Luckily  for me my TT bike never arrived! It was shipped to me in Valencia a week or more  before the tour so I could get some good rides on it. Well customs decided to keep  it till after the time trial for shits & giggles So I rocked up for the 28km TT on my  roady with clip ons. Needless to say Rudy gave me the day off…

Stage 3 : Sahagún – Estación Inv. De San Isiro,

The first Uphill tester

So the plan for the day was be aggressive early & get up the road, unfortunately the fact that in the first 2hours we covered 103km meant that at most points you needed to have an ACME Rocket strapped to your rig in order to get away. After the feed zone though a group of 5 or so were allowed by Astana to roll out there till 5km to go up to a ski station somewhere in Spain? I think Astanas plan was not let anything escape till later on in the stage making it easier to control later. When a larger move went off the front the “Astananator” himself (Tomas Vaitus) just flicked on the diesel switch & reeled anything back in! The final ascent up to the ski station wasn’t so bad & a fairly decent sized field sprinted for the line, Valverde taking his first win of an already troublesome season……

Stage 4 : Santa María Del Páramo – Galende-Laguna De Los Peces,

Stairway to Heaven

The “Queen” stage was upon us with two Cat1 climbs ahead of us. The first coming at about 90km & the final Cat1 we finished at the top of. A group went clear about 20km before the first Cat1 but blew to bits once they started the 16% gradient. The night before we were asked if we wanted a 25 on our rear cassettes, the Spaniards said no so I said no probs I’ll roll with that. Plus Rudy reckons 25’s are for riding to heaven But unfortunately that’s where the climb sent us, up into the heavens. It was only about 12km  long but bloody steep! I started mid field & just had to try to  keep the power down staying on top of that 23 to the top. I  found myself collecting tickets from all the guys popping off  the back of the group one by one. With 500m to go I was  still hanging on by a thread to the front group of 12. Until  they knocked it back a gear & sprinted for the KOM points  at the top. There was no point chasing down the descent  with Oscar just behind me I decided to take it steady down  one of the bumpiest downhill rides I’d had in a while. One  corner caught me off guard as it turned back on itself & I  had the right foot out for a bit trying to steady the ship. By  the bottom we’d caught back up to the leaders & Oscar went on the offensive heading up the road. Astana kept them in check though & by half way up the final climb (which wasn’t as steep as the first one, just windy and fast) Dave Z launched a counter that seriously stirred up the hive as riders started scattering everywhere like the keepers had come to harvest! By the top the lead group was about 15 strong but no changes to the overall with Levi leading still over Alberto then Dave Z.

Stage 5 : Benavente – Valladolid,

Days of Thunder

 The final day was upon us & not much was going to happen to the overall, so guys  down on GC tried in vain to escape for the first hour before 2 guys got away. The  peleton kept them at 2-3 minutes for most of the stage. I was feeling like I’d blown  a cylinder from the hard days before so I just hid & got to the finish line. About  40km to go though the bunch was cruising along at about 40kph, when a couple of  guys just in front of me & slightly to the right collided. I watched the whole ordeal  go down praying they didn’t bank left in front of me as I had nowhere to go but  into the barriers. Now remembering back to a movie where Robert Duval tells Tom Cruise “ya just gotta stay high and put the power down and ride through that smoke without hesitating!” (Hence my title) Ok so there was no smoke, but there was a crash barrier & dudes going down in front of me so a close enough comparison As the guys hit the deck they started sliding or rolling in my directing, I had no time to break so I was riding this one out no matter how it turned out! The bike & his owner heading my way brushed my right leg and my rear wheel rolled over his front wheel which was lying over by now! A bloody lucky escape to say the least and I think the old heart skipped a few beats along the ways! I didn’t look behind as it sounded even nastier when other guys weren’t as lucky as me came to grief…. With that said n done I survived to the finish ok & glad to have that race over and done with! Valverde notched another win & the King of one week tours took the overall…..

Next up is a one dayer in the north of Spain , Llodio and the forecast – Cold and Wet…..

Then onto Portugal for a 5’er (Volta ao Alentejo)

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