After two weeks of sickness and relative inactivity I gave in went over to Columbia to ride with Joe and Aaron. After a night and early morning of rain the roads were wet but the skies dried just before we started. The four of us went to Maeystown. Along the way we did one paceline effort and then a shorter lead out train effort to the Maeystown city limit. Halfway through and I was riding okay but could feel a lack of sprinting type strength.
On the way back we put in another couple paceline efforts and that pushed me to my limits. The legs were cramping a little but we were pretty close 255 by then and getting home wasn't too difficult. I hurt a little by the end but getting the miles in before tomorrows long ride is a good thing. At least that is what I'm telling myself.
Ride distance was 63 miles. Elapsed time of approximately 3:40 or 3:45.
News Item of the Day: Spain's Koldo Gil Perez (Liberty Seguros) mastered the first hill-heavy day of the 2005 Giro d'Italia Saturday, soloing to Stage 7 victory ahead of an all-star chase group led home by defending race champion Damiano Cunego. Italian Danilo Di Luca usurped the pink jersey of the race's overall lead.
Stage winner Perez was the sole survivor of a 21-man escape that bubbled off the front just 32 km into Saturday's 211 km route between Grosseto and Pistoia. Perez, the overall winner of the Tour of Murcia in March, attacked on the day's major difficulty, the category-one Sammomme climb, whose summit sat just 16.9 km from the finish line. Six kilometres long and at an average grade of eight percent, the Sammomme was the rudest test of the 2005 Giro d'Italia thus far, sawing the peloton to shreds and providing a telltale hint at who, truly, is in pink-jersey form.
Spanish climber Perez, 27, danced up the Sammomme with serene ease, graceful and out-of-the-saddle before bombing a humid, rain-slicked descent to the finish in Pistoia. The Liberty Seguros rider folded into the drops, measured his effort and won the day -- the biggest of his of career -- 20 sec in front of a mad-capped chase group helmed by defending Giro d'Italia champion Damiano Cunego. "I was very tired at the top of the last climb but my team director Manolo Saiz told me I still had a lead of over a minute and so I gave it everything to win," he said
The hostilities in the peloton -- and the selection process for the worthy wearer of the pink jersey -- were launched on the slopes of the Sammomme by Italian Gilberto Simoni. The double Giro winner's (2001, 2003) acceleration instantly dropped the pink jersey of Paolo Bettini. The Olympic road race champion has been valiant in the first week of this Giro d'Italia but was forced Saturday to bow to the mountain-climbing prowess of the real overall race favourites.
Simoni's pace put the hurt on CSC's designated leader Ivan Basso, the Italian third-place finisher at last year's Tour de France losing contact off the summit of the Sammomme and trailing in 30 sec adrift of the group of all-star race favourites. Basso now sits in 10th in the overall standings, 1 min 27 sec back of overall leader Danilo Di Luca. Its a deficit the 27-year-old can erase, but Basso is already digging a dangerous hole -- particularly ahead of Sunday's 45 km individual time-trial, a discipline not exactly known as his forte.
It was Di Luca's second pink jersey of the Giro after winning the stage and taking it in L'Aquila on Thursday. "It's great to have the pink jersey again and I'll try and defend it in tomorrow's time trial to Florence." Di Luca said. "I've showed I'm riding well and so even though I'm not a time trial specialist I might keep it by a few seconds."
Di Luca admitted he would not be a contender for overall victory just because he has been on top form since winning three races and taking the lead in the new ProTour competition. "I have little chance of winning the Giro because the final week in the mountains is very hard," he said. "Two stage wins and two days in the pink is enough for me. Now I'll try and help my Liquigas team mates Stefano Garzelli and Dario Cioni."
On a stage made slick and dangerous by the daylong threat of rain, Italian Stefano Garzelli survived safe-and-sound -- until the stage's final kilometre. Slipped up on the day's ultimate right-hand bender, the 2000 race champion hit the tarmac hard. Slow to rise, Garzelli displayed a thigh ripped with road rash and, paced by his Liquigas team, straggled to the finish at what could have been a disastrous loss of 2 min 27 sec. However, because his crash occurred in the final three kilometres, Garzelli was graced by race officials and awarded the same time as the group he crashed out of. The Italian ended up losing a more-palatable 50 sec on the day and occupies sixth on the general classification, 1 min 14 sec back of Di Luca.
On the way back we put in another couple paceline efforts and that pushed me to my limits. The legs were cramping a little but we were pretty close 255 by then and getting home wasn't too difficult. I hurt a little by the end but getting the miles in before tomorrows long ride is a good thing. At least that is what I'm telling myself.
Ride distance was 63 miles. Elapsed time of approximately 3:40 or 3:45.
News Item of the Day: Spain's Koldo Gil Perez (Liberty Seguros) mastered the first hill-heavy day of the 2005 Giro d'Italia Saturday, soloing to Stage 7 victory ahead of an all-star chase group led home by defending race champion Damiano Cunego. Italian Danilo Di Luca usurped the pink jersey of the race's overall lead.
Stage winner Perez was the sole survivor of a 21-man escape that bubbled off the front just 32 km into Saturday's 211 km route between Grosseto and Pistoia. Perez, the overall winner of the Tour of Murcia in March, attacked on the day's major difficulty, the category-one Sammomme climb, whose summit sat just 16.9 km from the finish line. Six kilometres long and at an average grade of eight percent, the Sammomme was the rudest test of the 2005 Giro d'Italia thus far, sawing the peloton to shreds and providing a telltale hint at who, truly, is in pink-jersey form.
Spanish climber Perez, 27, danced up the Sammomme with serene ease, graceful and out-of-the-saddle before bombing a humid, rain-slicked descent to the finish in Pistoia. The Liberty Seguros rider folded into the drops, measured his effort and won the day -- the biggest of his of career -- 20 sec in front of a mad-capped chase group helmed by defending Giro d'Italia champion Damiano Cunego. "I was very tired at the top of the last climb but my team director Manolo Saiz told me I still had a lead of over a minute and so I gave it everything to win," he said
The hostilities in the peloton -- and the selection process for the worthy wearer of the pink jersey -- were launched on the slopes of the Sammomme by Italian Gilberto Simoni. The double Giro winner's (2001, 2003) acceleration instantly dropped the pink jersey of Paolo Bettini. The Olympic road race champion has been valiant in the first week of this Giro d'Italia but was forced Saturday to bow to the mountain-climbing prowess of the real overall race favourites.
Simoni's pace put the hurt on CSC's designated leader Ivan Basso, the Italian third-place finisher at last year's Tour de France losing contact off the summit of the Sammomme and trailing in 30 sec adrift of the group of all-star race favourites. Basso now sits in 10th in the overall standings, 1 min 27 sec back of overall leader Danilo Di Luca. Its a deficit the 27-year-old can erase, but Basso is already digging a dangerous hole -- particularly ahead of Sunday's 45 km individual time-trial, a discipline not exactly known as his forte.
It was Di Luca's second pink jersey of the Giro after winning the stage and taking it in L'Aquila on Thursday. "It's great to have the pink jersey again and I'll try and defend it in tomorrow's time trial to Florence." Di Luca said. "I've showed I'm riding well and so even though I'm not a time trial specialist I might keep it by a few seconds."
Di Luca admitted he would not be a contender for overall victory just because he has been on top form since winning three races and taking the lead in the new ProTour competition. "I have little chance of winning the Giro because the final week in the mountains is very hard," he said. "Two stage wins and two days in the pink is enough for me. Now I'll try and help my Liquigas team mates Stefano Garzelli and Dario Cioni."
On a stage made slick and dangerous by the daylong threat of rain, Italian Stefano Garzelli survived safe-and-sound -- until the stage's final kilometre. Slipped up on the day's ultimate right-hand bender, the 2000 race champion hit the tarmac hard. Slow to rise, Garzelli displayed a thigh ripped with road rash and, paced by his Liquigas team, straggled to the finish at what could have been a disastrous loss of 2 min 27 sec. However, because his crash occurred in the final three kilometres, Garzelli was graced by race officials and awarded the same time as the group he crashed out of. The Italian ended up losing a more-palatable 50 sec on the day and occupies sixth on the general classification, 1 min 14 sec back of Di Luca.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home