G. P. Llodio is always hard. And this year was no exception. My job was to get in the break and try and win something. I played my part well initially by getting in a huge group that split of the front. I was the only rider there from my team and this wasn't a good situation for the team. Luckily however Euskatel's junior team, Orbea, felt it necessary to annul this huge group and put in a terrific chase with eventually did after 20km. That breakaway wasn't hanging around either.
After that initial effort in the breakaway I wasn't feeling good so just sat in the bunch. On the first climb of the day I also felt short of breath. Last year I had attacked a couple of times here, but this year I was just a little bit short of form. About 10km after the hill there was a huge crash in the bunch, I was really close to getting through unscathed doing a "stoppie" but also fell. I was okay and set of again in pursuit of the bunch, but in the crash my rear break became jammed shut. My boss can be a bit hard on us and here is an example; he thought I was looking for a lift up to the bunch and insisted that I get under my own steam before helping out. So I did, but the effort more or less destroyed my weekend.
The race transformed at some point while I was chasing past all the cars. When I reached the bunch there were a lot riders from Barbot/Efapel and Euskatel/Euskadi and only one other from my team. The thing to do in this situation is to drive it on the front, sparing your climbers and forcing the others (already at a disadvantage) to chase. But my team mates didn't do this.
The bunch then came together and was controlled by Barbot for about 40km until we entered the finishing circuit. Meanwhile I and Nelson Vitorino were considering quitting, I because my cleat was dislodged and causing me a lot of pain and he, because he was bonking after a day in the break away. But I wanted to finish the race. So I chased back up into the middle of the bunch and stayed there.
A large group then slowly formed just ahead on a relatively easy section of the course. I didn't jump across because I had 4 team mates there, but in hind sight I probably should have. Unfortunately I was being stupid and defeatist because of my little mishap earlier in the day. On the last climb of the day Santi Perez jumps out, gains an advantage and holds on down the 5km descent to the line to win by 4s.
A blog by Tomás Metcalfe about professional cycling (what's left of it!) in Portugal.
Showing posts with label Santi Perez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Santi Perez. Show all posts
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Taça de Portugal -Volta a Albergaria
This weekend we had the first round of the Portuguese cup the "Taça de Portugal".
The race was interesting, the course was not particularly challenging, but it was sinuous and dangerous. Early in the race I was not feeling good due to the long journey the day before and the bad nights sleep; the hotel we stayed at was grim, it's a place where women from the road side attend their clients. The team manager was furious with the situation; he had a sponsor visiting the race. Ironically when I raced this race before we stayed in a convent!
I made a few lame attempts to get in the break at the beginning of the race. I had a 50kph off-road excursion at a section where the road cut in. I din't crash but I lost my nerve. I resigned myself to doing a shit race and started preparing my excuses.
When we got near the hills the race continued to be animated: On the first big descent a guy took a plunge of a bridge into a ravine. I was sure he must have died. We stopped the race. As the Portuguese say ~"He was lucky in his bad luck" because he fell feet first into a raspberry bush 4 meters down. And didn't take the longer plunge, just a meter to the left, onto the rocks further bellow.
After this the race began to get animated and I started to feel okay. We were to sit quietly in the bunch until the final 20 k or so, when we were to try to blow the race appart. We raced a tactically perfect race here. On the first hill André Cardoso did an excellent job of marking Santi Perez. Then after his group got reeled in by the Barbot squad I had my go:
For all those keen on human performance:
The race was interesting, the course was not particularly challenging, but it was sinuous and dangerous. Early in the race I was not feeling good due to the long journey the day before and the bad nights sleep; the hotel we stayed at was grim, it's a place where women from the road side attend their clients. The team manager was furious with the situation; he had a sponsor visiting the race. Ironically when I raced this race before we stayed in a convent!
I made a few lame attempts to get in the break at the beginning of the race. I had a 50kph off-road excursion at a section where the road cut in. I din't crash but I lost my nerve. I resigned myself to doing a shit race and started preparing my excuses.
When we got near the hills the race continued to be animated: On the first big descent a guy took a plunge of a bridge into a ravine. I was sure he must have died. We stopped the race. As the Portuguese say ~"He was lucky in his bad luck" because he fell feet first into a raspberry bush 4 meters down. And didn't take the longer plunge, just a meter to the left, onto the rocks further bellow.
After this the race began to get animated and I started to feel okay. We were to sit quietly in the bunch until the final 20 k or so, when we were to try to blow the race appart. We raced a tactically perfect race here. On the first hill André Cardoso did an excellent job of marking Santi Perez. Then after his group got reeled in by the Barbot squad I had my go:
- I managed to open up a good gap and had a good companion in Amaro Antunes.
- We got to the final climb with an advantage.
- Two of my team mates bridged across.
- On pulled through a bit to hard and shattered Amaro, then me, then himself.
- The attack would have worked if it had been 5min further on and if my team mates had bridged the gap earlier.
At the end Sergio Ribeiro, who is in grand form won and we came in 5th through Daniel Mestre. I have to hand it to our rivals Barbot, they were stronger than us.
For all those keen on human performance:
The penultimate climb was passed at 1872 VAM in 4:10 min (this was where Cardoso, Perez and a few others got away). The period of about 10min at 180 bpm+ was my attack at the end. Then I just hung on to the coat tails of the peloton till the finish, putting in one other (lame) attack at about 5km to go.
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