I’m writing this from my hotel room in Amsterdam, counting down the hours until we get going on Saturday with an 8km prologue in the city centre. I guess I look at this as the second part of my season – my last race was the GP Pino Cerami, which was the last of the one day races in the Spring for me. I took four days completely off the bike after that, before starting a four week training block focussed on getting in shape for the Giro.
It’s been great to be home for an extended period, spending time with my family, and for once the weather has been really kind to me back in the UK, with barely a day of rain in the last month………it must be some kind of record. It’s been pretty easy to train hard the last few weeks with the Giro in mind. This is Carlos’ big goal for the first part of the season and the rest of us also need to be in top shape to help him as much as possible.
I have to admit though, that these last few days before the start really seem to drag on. All the hard work is done, and as riders we all just want to get started now.
Today we did some team time trial practice, trying to get the most efficient formation between the riders etc. It all looked pretty smooth and fast, and it can actually feel pretty easy to go 50kph+ in a group with all the time trial bikes and equipment. Probably the biggest part of a successful team time trial is being as smooth as possible. It’s easy to get caught up with all the adrenaline, and push through really hard when it’s your turn on the front.
But, one of the hardest efforts of a TTT is getting onto the back of the line. You’ve just done your turn on the front, you pull out of the line to let the next guy through, slow down slightly, move down the outside of the line whilst still pushing the wind, and then have to re-accelarate when the last rider comes through to get back up to the same speed as the other riders. If the person who comes through behind you is feeling super strong and increases the speed, it can be very hard to get back in the line, and once you’ve got into the red it’s very hard to get comfortable again (not that a TTT should ever feel comfortable!).
After training this morning, we headed to the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium, where Cervelo announced our new sponsor and partner, Tata Consultancy Services. Tata is a truly huge company based in India, with over 160,000 employees worldwide and an annual revenue in the billions. It’s a credit to the team that such a firm has invested in us. We had a presentation of the new jersey featuring the Tata logo, and then a press conference before heading back to the hotel.
The first couple of days should be interesting, wind could be a big factor and the race favourites, along with their teams, will be getting very nervous. As always, the race cannot be won in the first few days…………but it can easily be lost.
