My preparation for the 2015 season did not go exactly
according to plan. After years of doing very little stretching, my body decided
that it wouldn’t stand for it anymore and muscle tightness and imbalances accumulated
into knee pain whenever I pedaled the bike. Consequently, I had to wind back
the training and take it easy a couple of weeks before my first race of the
season, The Dubai Tour.
During the race, I was told that I wouldn’t be doing any
damage to my knee but it was going to hurt and I’d just have to push through
it. It was pretty obvious that I was under-prepared and by the end of the last
day, my knee was quite tender. I returned to Spain and again hand to wind back
the training to sort the knee out. On my race schedule, my name was down for
Strade Bianche so I had only 3 weeks to prepare. To be honest, I was pretty
worried that my next race was going to be one renowned for its difficulty but
fortunately, I was able to another race a week before it to test the legs.
After what seemed like endless hours of stretching and
strengthening, I was finally able to ride without pain again just a few days
before the GP Lugano in Switzerland. I knew that I was lacking the intensity
and hours that I needed for racing but I was hoping to do what I could for the
team and test the legs before Strade Bianche. The problem with one-day races is
that there is no opportunity to just sit in and take it easy until the end.
Everybody knows that there is not going to be another opportunity the next day
so it is hard racing from start to finish. Every rider leaves everything they
have out on the road. As a result, most one-day races end with only a fraction
of the peloton crossing the line together while the rest of the field is either
back in the bus or in fragments behind them. The race did not go well for me,
putting even more doubt in my mind for Strade Bianche but I returned again to
Spain and did a couple of long, hard training rides to get some intensity in
the legs.
Most teams and riders like to do a bit of reconnaissance of
the course before the race begins and with a race like Strade Bianche and its 45km
of dirt roads, it’s good to know what’s coming. Unfortunately, due to the
location, I was only able to arrive the evening before the race so it wasn’t
ideal but I figured it was probably better that I didn’t know how difficult it
was going to be!Our bikes were prepared with wider tires for the gravel roads
and slightly lower pressures. I was told that most of the sectors were like
compacted dirt so I didn’t want to run anything too low and after all, there is
still 155km of tarmac to ride!
In the days leading up to the race, there had been some strong
winds across most of southern Europe and on the morning of the race they were beginning
to pick up. As we rolled out, it was blowing a gale, adding another difficulty
factor to the race. The first two dirt sectors were not too difficult. The compacted
dirt meant that your wheels weren’t sliding around and you could ride the
crosswinds relatively easily. The most annoying thing was the amount of dust.
Unless you were at the front of the peloton, you were riding through a constant
dust storm and at the end of each section your mouth was dry and lined with mud
and your bike got noisier. The race stretched out as it basically fell into two
lines on the smoother car tracks and you had very little opportunity to
overtake the rider in front of you.
When we hit the 3rd sector, things changed. It
wasn’t the compacted dirt like the first two but it was deep gravel.
Immediately, two Orica riders hit the ground and caused a small gap in the
bunch as they struggled to untangle their bikes. The strong crosswinds were
pushing riders to the edge of the road and many struggled to hold their front
wheel in a straight line in the gravel whilst leaning into the wind. Littered
along the side of the road were riders either picking themselves up off the
ground or holding their punctured wheels in the air waiting for their team cars
that were also held up behind the chaos.
Team Novo Nordisk was not immune to the punctures and in the
space of about 5km, we suffered 5 punctures. I came around a corner to find a
team mate waiting on the side of the road. With his legs being better than
mine, I stopped and gave him a wheel and pushed him on his way. After what
seemed like an eternity, the team car finally arrived and I got going again.
The dust was pretty bad in the bunch but when the team cars are basically rally
racing to get to their fallen riders, it was insane! At times, I could barely
see the road ahead of me!
As I tried to chase back, the road was constantly blocked by
team cars as they stopped for their riders so the going was slow. Before the
end of the sector, I passed 4 of my team mates on the side of the road waiting
for wheels and every one of them had a ‘this is insane’ look on their face. At
one point, all I could do was laugh.
As we hit the Tarmac, car after car passed me, each with a
couple of riders behind it trying to get back to the bunch. Finally, my team car
arrived with 3 team mates behind it and I jumped on. Unfortunately, it’s
difficult to hold 60kph in 3rd position behind a car in crosswinds and
I was left behind. I arrived at the feed zone a few km’s up the road and called
it a day. The 3rd dirt sector caused a lot of chaos and cost a lot
of riders their race. The stupid thing is, apparently the final 40km is the
hardest part of the race!
Here is a photo gallery that sums up the race well... http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/03/strade-bianche-in-photos-2/
In 2 weeks, my name is on the long list for Milan Sanremo,
which would be an amazing race to do, but in the meantime I need to earn my
place. I have another 2 one day races this weekend in the Nederlands with Ronde
van Drenthe and Dwars door Drenthe. Fortunately, there are no dirt roads but
cobbles and crosswinds instead!
