Euskaldun Cup Round

Yesterday we had a round of the Euskaldun Cup. A serries of race in the Euskadi area of Spain, Yes the same Euskadi that sponsers the Euskatel pro tour team. For those of you who dont no, the pro team Euskatel Euskadi is a sponsership between the phone company Euskatel (eg vodaphone in NZ) and Euskadi the Basque area of Spain. Its kinda like a regional team for the Basque people.

So the days race was fairly rolly country no realy big climbs probly the longest not any more than 1.5k MAX. But there was a bit of wind to contentd with. Not the brutal winds Southland or even some nasty winds some of you may have raced in at the recent Tour of Taranaki but some solid wind none the less.
I was pretty keen to try for my current goal of a top ten today as i was feeling good. So from kilometer zero I was right on the front at the pointy end of the race getting stuck in. Attacking and following attacks. Once or twice things looked good only to have guys try come across and spoil it. The pressure stayed on for the first 30k and it was a round 20-25k mark my lungs were screaming and werent delevering any oxygen to my legs whats so ever. Wise words from David McCain from when I rode with Giant Asia were if its easy no break goes when its hard and your hurting your likley to make it. So i sucked it up for another crack unfortunatly even with the determination and a quick sling from Mikey T the legs just werent going to co-operate with out the oxygen so I had no choice but to sit in for a quick breather. 2 riders slipped clear and the break was formed. The race settled down for the next few ks and Team Cafe Baque, managed by non other than Joseba Beloki, the very man who chased Lance around France to take 2x3rd and one 2nd on the TDF podium, settled on the front to keep things in check for their sprinter. I was sitting just behind in 5th wheel and thought id drop back to Mikey for a quick Stratagy meeting. Conclusion, Cafe Baque have a super fast man and where going to set it up for a sprint which meant we needed to set out Columbian fast man Willian up for a sprint if we want to win. Choice.... Wrong as soon as wed had this discussion only a few minuets after dropping back we hit some tight little roads and lots of rolling climbs and x-winds.
Pretty quickly I was cursing myself for dropping back and not just staying on the front. I had to skip through a couple of groups to work my way up and we ended up with 5 team mates in the 2nd group, fortunatly Brad and Willian were in the front group. Unfortunatly for us we had team Bidelans top sprinter with us, which meant sitting on and letting there team try to bring the front of the race back. So pretty much the rest of the day was spent as a fast training ride following to the finish as the gap went further away.

Lesson Learnt: when your on the front just stay there. Sometimes itl all just blow up in your face.

So I ended the day pretty angry. Fortunatly We have a good block of four races this week. Thursday, Saturday followed by Monday and Tuesday, so ill be out looking for Redemtion.


TIll then
Josh