Olympias Tour
Just back from a testing week riding around The Netherlands.
I came into the New Zealand team with short notice after a number of riders felt sick or injured.
I was excited and amping to be racing such a well known & prestigious tour.
After waiting around all morning talking smack and drinking weak coffees....
The Race started on Monday evening. with a 3,2 km prologue on the coast near Amsterdam !
*The team consisted of a mix of 'road to Rio u23 trackies' (Cam,Hayden,Hamish,Mike)
and 4 european based roadies (Clinton,Alex,Gatey,Myself) we also had the privilege of local & ex tour director Robert Slippens as our D.S (his advice during the week was bloody good).
So the track guys had the prologue in their sights.
Cam Karwowski had a really strong ride to take 5th on the stage, I did what I could on the road bike (with the clip-on slingshot bars) and even held the hot seat for a while having been one of the early starters.
Stage 1: 180km with 3x50km circuit to finish with, this stage was always going to be pretty windy as discussed the night before and on the last 50km lap a group slipped away in the X wind and that was race over. I wasn't feeling great all day and was happy to cross the line.
Stage 2:
Looking at the map and wind direction this stage was always going to be tough as well.
I was feeling a lot better in this stage but wasn't in the right place when the hammer went down at the 90km mark, and the split went away. I rolled in with a big group to the finish.
Stage 3: Was a really wet with a heap of small country roads near the end. I had a couple of digs off the front to try and break the strangle hold that the leaders team had on the bunch. Once onto the finishing circuit Clinton bridged over to a group of 3 and they had a decent gap, but with 2 teams putting in the hard yards at the front of the bunch they were caught with 1 lap to go. In the last lap it was pretty sketchy with a lot of fighting for position in the slippery roads. I tried to help position our sprinters but it was so crazy.
Stage4: 192km in the hills of the limburg region. The rain started coming down in the neutral section and by this point i knew it was going to be a long day. It was all on right from the start. with the first KoM climb coming after 4.4km I sat in the bunch the best i could and tried not to look down at the computer to often. In the end the pelo kept getting smaller and smaller as the steep hills and rain took its toll.
Stage 5 ITT: I was pretty smashed from the day before but still wanted to do an ok TT, I was lucky enough to use Clintons TT bike. even though i only set it up just before the start it felt ok and i was keen to lay down a time.
I a bit pissed off i didn't pace myself so well and should have posted a better time, but was looking forward to the last stage.
Stage 6: The last stage was only 80km and on a 8.3km circuit. Virtually from the start Rabobank u23 team went to the front with all 6 or 7 riders and started lapping out to keep the pace steady as to stop other teams from attacking and disrupting. I was keen to attack, but when the bunch is doing well over 45kph its nearly impossible to get away. In the last lap, the 5 of use found each other and tried to lead out Gatey for for the bunch sprint but we lost each other with 2.5km to go. I ended up being in an awesome spot going under the 1km banner but got caught behind a few guys at 500m from the line.
So I'm taking a few days rest now after a pretty hectic few weeks. Cheers to everyone that made Olympias such a good tour.
Kieran
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