Had the 'vuelta a coruna' over the weekend, teh first stgae went pretty well, i made the split of the day then with about 40km to go i went away with 1 other rider, i was feeling really good but unfortunately my companion wasn't putting in the same effort and eventually wasn't helping at all, just before the last climb of the day with about 12km to go we were caught by a small group and over the top we had a group of 6, the finish was an 800m uphill cobbled section, but i wasn't quite up to it finishing 5th. The next day i tried again but this time with about 30km to go, over the last climb i had about 45secs but again it wasn't to be as the group of about 20 pulled me in. The last stage and still in 5th but only 5secs down i took to them went in the day long escape with one team mate and one other rider, we got out to 3min40secs, but again this was to prove fruitless as we got pulled in with 30km to go, needless to say i was pretty much smoked after that but we all got a wee treat on the long drive home, a phone call to say we were going to be racing the next day!!
The race was the first round of the Copa Iberica, our team rode brilliantly, covering every move and it eventually paid off, it was a 3 lap race and on the final lap up one of the first hills i hit out, soon i had 2 team mates and 3 other riders there, it was a big help to have team mates there and gave us some good options in the finish, we managed to pull it off perfectly, with myself and 1 other getting away then our other team mate taking the sprint between just behind us, I rolled in for 2nd but an awesome day for the team filling out the podium.
The form seems pretty good so just abit of recovery now then some quality training with the help of my coach Silas at http://sites.google.com/a/smartcoaching.org/home/
My next tour is just over a week away, I was 2nd there last year so we will see how that goes...
Untill then, cheers
Mike
