Brit’s Grand Tour debut for Team Corratec has been a baptism of fire
BUILD-UP
Last night’s team presentation brought home just how important this race is. It was a really special moment to roll out onto the pink carpet for the first time in front of cameras and thousands of people in this festival-like atmosphere. Until that point we’d only seen the inside of the hotel and the angry Italian drivers on the road.
Dangerous riding conditions aside, what training does one do before a Grand Tour? For me, I’ve been opening up the legs a little bit more every day because the first stage is a TT, so it’s a target for me. For the others it’s more about finding the balance between maintaining the form, loosening up the legs, and appreciating the last easy days before Jumbo-Visma and Quick Step impose an annoyingly hard speed in the peloton.
It’s tough to know exactly how to do it on your first time. Even if my coach has a lot of experience and scientific understanding, it’s also a first for him so we have to guess a little bit.
The buzz around the race is something else. I’m a professional rider but I’m also not Geraint Thomas so I don’t normally get too many media requests. But since I announced my participation, it’s gone through the roof. I’m not complaining though, I just need to remember I’m here mainly for the cycling and not for the vlogging.
STAGE 1
That was a big blow. This was the flat TT with a little kick in the end and it turned out to be very demoralising. I’d put a lot of work into this and it didn’t pay off. The course was nice though. Very fast on the seafront before taking on a climb to the finish. I can confirm that 5% average for a climb of 1.5km is much more painful at the end of a TT than on a training ride.
I was convinced I was on a good day but after 5km or so I started to see the power drop off. The speed was always above 50kph but I was really feeling the legs start to fill up with lactate. I gave everything on the final climb before hanging on to the finish through the packed cobbled streets of Orton
