GIRO D'ITALIA
The Corratec rider on rest-day lurgy and Grand Tour finisher’s pride
REST DAY
On the first rest day, although I didn’t dare say it, I was wondering why we needed them. I really got myself into the rhythm and wasn’t really getting more tired. It was a rather different story this time! Yesterday, I finally got the symptoms of a stomach bug that’s afflicted a few other guys in the peloton and it was horrible. Last night I hardly moved or talked, no more than necessary for massage and saying “sì” for pasta. Luckily, I had today to recover before the big-mountain days and it seems to have done the trick! I also managed to sneak in a little bit of economics revision and help organise for my girlfriend Louise to come to Rome on Sunday.
STAGE 16
That was horrible. It just seemed like it was never-ending. It was pure will-power that kept the pedals turning on the final climb. When it was over, I had to pull myself up the steps to the bus with my arms as I had no more power in my calves.
STAGE 17
“The tiredness I rack up today will be for future-me to deal with.” This is my favourite quote from myself, if I can have a favourite quote of mine. Attacking from the off felt like cafe legs but 10 times worse. A really nice day in the breakaway. Unfortunately, we had such a big headwind that we didn’t have a great atmosphere in the group. The others never believed we had a chance, even if we accelerated in the final hour, and they were right. The peloton kept us on a very tight leash, which was really annoying. We tried to go harder for the last 50km but it’s also not easy after so many hard days on the bike.
STAGE 18
Well, I was right in that I did indeed feel yesterday’s work in the legs today. It was horrible, actually. The problem was more the painful stom
