Stage 5 of the Tour.
My legs were kaputt. I was happy that after the neutralised start the pace didn’t pick up much for the first few kms. However, we arrived at the first climb after a while and I struggled. I lost a lot of ground but sprinted onto the back of a bunch at the first small respite in the climb. Then I tried to play catch up for a bit but it didn’t work and I continued riding with the bunch.
I rode the rest of the race trying to conserve the strength in my legs. We turned off the main road and headed the last 20 km towards the finish line. It was another super sunny day so there was much sweating as we climbed the wee power climbs (without power) and rode the flatter sections. At one stage the front of the group broke away and I was left in the middle with another guy. We worked together and managed to bridge the gap. On one corner we saw a large bunch in front of us but they were at the top of a climb and we had no chance of catching them.
Before the finish there are a few kms of descent. Nobody wanted to work so close to the finish. I didn’t either but found myself on the front. I decided to attack and nobody followed, but I couldn’t keep up the pace and near the end was caught up to, then the rest of the bunch that we had dropped caught us up 1 km before the finish. It was another hill finish and I used the last of my legs to sprint the last 50 m to keep the majority of the bunch away.
Another good race. Luckily there’s just a short TT tomorrow.