Hey guys,
Today begins Stage 2 of Gracia Orlova in the Czech Republic. Two days ago the stage race was commenced by a 2.2 km prologue that was half on a bike path and half on an actual road, with finishing times just seconds apart from each other. I finished only about 10 seconds down from the leader with a time of 3:03 min.
Yesterday was Stage 1 of the tour, which was a 104km stage with a few steep, 1km climbs and a nasty, narrow pockmarked 8km climb to the finish. I began the race doing my assigned job which was to surf the front and chase down any aggressive moves before the climbs. Fortunately it also helped me on the climbs themselves as I was already at the front and had a few positions to lose before the top, and didn't have to waste energy to catch back on over the top.
As soon as the rough climbs were over the race slowed down immensely and a few of use could take feeds from the car, which was easy since ours was 5th in the caravan (since we were ranked 5th in team classification). As we approached the final 8km climb the sky was threatening with rain as dark clouds covered the peloton and sprinkles of rain could be felt. Fortunately, the rain ended up holding out until about ten minutes after the race was over, when it began to dump. Our German mechanic has the habit of cleaning his plate every day at dinner, insisting that it will bring good weather. I guess it has been working.
Anyway, we hit the final climb and the pack slowly began to splinter, and I resolved to ride within myself to prevent myself from blowing up trying to stay with any particular group. The final 5 km felt like it took about 3 hours, but I finished about 4.5 minutes behind the winner, in 57th place. Teammate Lindsay Myers took 8th place, moving herself up to 7th in GC.
So far the weather looks nice for Stage 2...hope our mechanic cleaned his plate.
Jessi
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