This was my first time ever going to Portugal so I was pretty excited to see what it was all about. The land was great and the smells reminded me of summer back home so I loved it. The race was a 4 day stage race; three road and one Time Trial stage.

The first day, stage one, was 206 kilometers with a break of three that got away gaining over 15 minutes. With a hard charging motivated field the break of three were brought back with 15 kilometers to go. Then a Robobank rider attacked holding about a 20 second advantage. I bridged up to him and we worked together to stay away until the finish. After going so deep I felt like my eye balls were going to pop out. The Dutch rider from Robobank and I were finally caught with around three kilometers to go. It was a good attempt and one of these days it will work, but for this day it was no good. I hung in and finished in the field sprint with the rest of the Peloton.

Stage two was nothing special, just another long day of around 190 kilometers that also ended in a field kick. The last 10 kilometers of this stage were actually pretty insane. There were a few moments I thought I was going to die. We were working to help set up Benny, our Australian rider for the sprint. I brought him up near the front one last time with about 1.5 kilometers to go and that was all I had left. We didn’t get the results we wanted, but at least no one hit a cement pole or a car.

Stage 3 was an 18 kilometer Time Trial. I expected to do better than I did so I wasn’t too happy afterwards, but racing is racing and even sometimes when you dig real deep and feel like you gave it your best you are not always satisfied with the outcome. My French teammate Kilian (Kiki) Patour did really well placing 11th, and moving into 15th overall, so this was super nice for the team.

Going into the last stage we were aiming for Kiki to move up into the top 10. A break of 2 riders got away so the race became a real chill to be controlled by the leading team. Practically our entire team was chilling at the back soaking up the sun and chatting for probably 30 minutes when Johnny our director got on the radio warning us of a right turn into a cross wind section and how important it was to be in the top 20. I could tell other teams got word of the news and were surly stressing over it as everyone was fighting to ride in the top 20 positions. I flew up the left side making it into about 15th position. Going into the right hand turn, sure enough shit hit the fan and it became balls out in the gutter. I was cruising, feeling good, and trying to focus on the guy’s wheel in front of me. This is hard to do when your cross eyed and quite frequently crashes happen. All you can do is focus on the wheel in front of you and try not to think of someone a couple riders ahead of you screwing up. If they do, there is no time to react and it’s a sure crash. Strung out, the peloton split into shreds. Three of my teammates and I made it into the front group of around 40. We didn’t see Kiki our GC rider, but later saw him make it back with a staggering but still motivated split of a group of about 20. The rest of the racers were history. At this point with about 10 kilometers to go it was just nuts with the Barloworld Italian team driving it at the front. I did everything I could to help Kiki stay near the front every time I saw him. My legs were throbing and my lungs were wheezing. With 3 kilometers to go I moved to the front of the raging racers that remained. I heard Pate say go, so I took it even farther up the right until we hit the one kilometer finish climb where I hit the fence and my head popped off. I was so blown; I went straight through the back of the small field and crawled my way to the finish line. Later I found out Kiki remained in 15th place which was good for the team.

Showered up, I headed to the airport in Porto Portugal to head back home to Girona. It was a nice race, always under the sun. I felt like it was good for my form. No great results came out of this one for the team but we all got a great deal of riding in and I believe we will be really fast for this next up and coming race in France known as GP Cholet, along with the Criteium International, also in France.

It’s rest up time until then.

Thanks for reading,

Steven

This stage was a hair raiser of a stage. It was a 180 kilometer stage out by the coast so there was a lot of wind but not enough to keep the group split up too long. I had to be on guard all day avoiding crashes and making sure to be on the right wheel going into the cross winds. Having two wheels break on me; the first one from a broken spoke and than the second from a piece of Belgian scrap medal that got shot up into my wheel. I new my bad luck had to be over. The race started to look like it was going to come down to a field sprint so we decided Brad Huff was going to be the man for the job. The two last finishing circuits were a total cluster mess because of the small roads. It was really hard to get everyone together to help Huff out so he was pretty much on his own. I saw him shooting all over the road trying to get on the best wheel leading up to the sprint. I would say he did about 8 sprints before the final sprint that landed him a nice 14th place. He is by far the fastest sprinter out there so we just need to work on getting him into a good position for the sprint. Will and I kept the same time overall and we both go into stage three in 6th and 7th place. Today is the last and hardest stage consisting of seven climbs, one with cobble stones know as the Kemmelberg; best known for being in the Gent Wevelgem classic race.

My goal for the day is to keep my 7th overall position by the end of the day going home happy.

Thanks for reading,

Steven

They should have called this race Three Days of Freeze Your Buns Off because stage one of this three day race in the Flemish speaking region of Belgium was everything but pleasant. We started off the 170 kilometer stage in the city of Kortrik. This was really nice because it’s where I spent most of my days when I raced back on the US National team. Before the start of the race I went to get a cup of tea at a shop I used to ride to just about everyday. Lots of memories came into my mind during this stage while racing over ground I had spent 4 years of my life riding and racing on. It was of course pouring cats and dogs at the start so we all made sure to dress extra warm. The extra clothes didn’t help much; I was completely soaked and icy after 5 minutes into the race. I felt like a popsicle. Racing in rain like this is like getting splashed in the face with ice water for 4 hours, not to mention trying to avoid crashes that happen quite often through the slippery turns and roundabouts. Days like this are super dangerous and you have to stay 100% focused the whole time. There were probably 7 cobble sections today hitting the same two every time around. We did a big lap of 70 kilometers, then a smaller lap of 35 kilometers and then another 3 laps of 20 kilometers. We got to see the sprint finish line plenty of times. On the last lap Will and I were feeling pretty good, so we both decided we were going to go for the sprint finish. With 3 kilometers to go we made sure to be in the top 15 riders going into a cross wind before the hill sprint. Riders in front of me were opening gaps here and there so within the 1 kilometer to go I closed maybe 3 gaps keeping Will on my wheel the whole time. With around 350 meters to go it was uphill to the finish which was perfect for me. The sprint started at about 300 meters to go and Will launched across the line in 5th place (I think) and I came in 6th or 7th for the day. Not bad having two guys from the team in the top ten at the start of a stage race. Tomorrow is going to be flat but probably windy since it is out at the coast. My goal for tomorrow is to improve on my overall (G.C) General Classification, take over the young riders Jersey and of course help Will try and get into the top 3 G.C.

I love Belgium for the racing but I sure can’t wait to get back down to the Girona Sunshine. With more from stage 2.

Thanks for reading,

Steven