I thought the road felt a lot rougher than it looked. It wasn't. At about 20km in I had a flat. I let myself float back in the peloton and raised my left hand so our team car would come up to me with a front Roval wheel ready to swap back onto my Specialized Amira. (Left hand means: front wheel. Right hand: rear wheel.) I got paced back onto the pack by the team car. No problem.
A while down the road, I thought that it was mighty weird that I had to pee so bad. That never happens to me in a race. (Did the Eload recipe suddenly change?) Then some of the Peanut Butter & Co. and Colavita girls called for a pee-break. It wasn't so weird after all...I wasn't the only one. (My Eload was fine.) It was my first experience peeing on the side of the road in a race. The altitude really has an impact on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. (It was my hypothesis and I confirmed it online.) I could have gone for a second pit-stop before the end but didn't want to risk not getting back into the pack.
With 10km to go we headed up the final climb to the finish line. It was a doozie. It was twisty with a couple of steep sections (19% incline). I had a blast climbing. I didn't manage to stay at the front though. I stuck around the SRAM car for a good part of the uphill. Those guys are so friendly.
After the race, we had to ride back down that 10km hill to the team cars that couldn't follow us up all of the way. That part was pretty pleasant for the eyes. The Pro1-2 men were still racing their way up...
I'm looking forward to uploading the data from my Quarq later on tonight. My massage is done...now it's time for a nap. Stage two tomorrow.
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