Stage 1 was a sprinters day! It came down to a field sprint at the finish. I tried to escape half way into the stage working to bridge up to another solo rider but the attempt failed after quite awhile of trying. I went back to the team car and was talking to Johnny about how I hate how the peloton lets one guy get 6 minutes up the road and then the rest of the guy’s just cruise, bringing him back in the last 20 kilometers. When I was back at the car I wanted my vest and Johnny goes “you shouldn’t be cold, go attack”. So I attacked from his car which was car number 3 for the day. I flew past the peloton like a rocket. I think in the first 20 seconds of my attack I must have put 2 minutes into the peloton. This didn’t matter though because the solo rider up the road was already 6 minutes ahead. I came within 2 minutes of him but the charging peloton brought me back and then they slacked a bit more giving the solo rider a bit more time to control the race. This really helped open me up for the days to come, along with getting some media attention for our team.

Stage 2 of the Vuelta Rioja, I crashed supper hard. I was going down the last mountain, charging to try and jump back up to the small front group and ate shit harder than ever. I lay there, in a ditch, unable to move. A car from a different team picked me up since my team car had already passed, so I got in. They drove me down the mountain a little bit and noticed that I was able to start moving my left arm and leg, hoping that all that was broke was my helmet. I motioned to the Spanish team director to let me out of the car and he looked at me like I was nuts. He let me out, put me back on my bike and I road the last 25 kilometers fast and hard in the rain.

After the race I felt like I had broken something in my back. I was in a lot of pain and there was a bulge where the scapula bone is. Bruised and battered, I felt pretty wrecked that night trying to get as good a sleep as possible.

Stage 3 was a battle and I can’t believe I finished. I couldn’t even stand up on the pedals. If I did, something jabbed or clinched my lung and I couldn’t breathe. I just sat most of the stage. This race was super painful after the crash, but I’m glad I learned to ride and finish with this pain. If one day I am in a position where I need to keep riding while in a leader’s jersey, I can look back to this day and know that there’s nothing I can’t handle.

To cap off the Vuelta Rioja, the team did great as a whole. We did our best to help our Dutch rider Huub continue to do well on each stage. He was doing really well and we should see some good stuff to come from him in the up and coming weeks.

I’m back in Girona now, resting a bit and going for x-rays to see if I broke anything. I don’t think I did but it’s totally worth knowing for sure because I feel like an 85 year old man right now. Nothing a good few days of rest can’t fix.

My next race as of now is Four days of Dunkirk in France. We have a race in Germany that I was supposed to do on Tuesday, but needed to skip due to the extent of my injuries.

Thanks for reading and much more to come,

Steven