Tour de l'Ardèche

This weekend was the Tour of Ardeche, it was really cool going back to familiar roads and nice weather.

After being sick for a couple of weeks after the training camp and races up in Vendee, I was keen to lay down a good result at some point during the weekend.

Stage 1: 100km of punchy hills and heaps of false flat kind of hills (really draining stage)
Any way I knew the course and knew when the pressure was going to go down, I made the selection on the hardest climb. But the only problem was that 20 guys and only me and one other team mate.
So as usual attacks keep coming from the big teams (Vulco, Chambery(Ag2r U23)) until the right combo gets away.
I was stressing out that we were going to miss a split only having 2 of us in there. So I rode on the front for a bit just chasing down moves from the big teams. After I had been smashing myself on the front, the bunch eases up   and my team mate rolls into the winning move with 30km to go! After this I was on my own trying my best to cover as many of the Vulco_Chamberry attacks as possible. But when they have so many guys in there its always hard. I ended up getting popped on the last Kom just 5km from the finish (my team mate Jullien ran 2nd for the stage so everyone was happy enough)

ITT: 6km
This is a gruelling TT with a 3km flat and then a 3k climb. It was never going to suit me but I went pretty hard. Only lost a minute to the winner so was happy enough.

Stage 3: 100km (steep 2km climbs, and some fast tech descents)
We were now sitting 3rd on GC, and only 10sec down, so our team plans were just to watch the race unfold and not do to much until we have to. In the end it was controlled well by Vulco and we only had to jump on the front in the last 15km when a dangers little group went clear.

In the final 2 or 3km its a nasty finish and I lost a bit of time after pulling on the front, but we held onto 3rd GC, and I ended up 23rd GC.

All good for the coming races,
Thought of the Day: Fromage, Pasta, Olive Oil, and Pasta