Edgy sprints and battling with a lot of bottle
STAGE 3 FIRSTTIMENERVES
Today was the first nailed-on sprint day and I was pretty nervous. Early sprint days in the Tour can be carnage, with GC teams fighting alongside the sprint trains.
Luckily, with two such savage days to start in the Basque Country, you could tell everyone was feeling it in the legs already – well, at least I was.
At the Tour more than any other race it’s all about being in the front, the speed is just so high you can’t be too far back. The higher the speed, the better it is to have a smooth ride and the smoothest ride is at the front.
Unfortunately, everyone knows this and the fight to be in front today started some 60 kilometres before the finish. I was really happy we were there early and so was Phil [Bauhaus], he’s one of the best at holding his ground in the last kilometres. You have to be, in the Tour.
Second place for him on the day just showed how well he’s going.
STAGE 4 CARNAGE
The day itself was lovely and relaxed for us, with no one going in the break. TV viewers would obviously want a bit more than a sleeper stage but you could tell everyone in the bunch was happy with the situation.
The final 3km on a motor-racing circuit still proved to be as crazy as anything; I was quite happy to see the carnage while slowly dropping from the bunch. We all agreed that was a proper Tour de France stage, finish-wise – bodies everywhere. Luckily everyone of us got through safely, some guys were not so lucky.
STAGE SIX OTHER PLANETS
I feel like my climbing legs have come on a bit so I was happy to get over the first big ascent of the day on stage six. Then it was over to the big two to show just what their level is. Turns out they’re both on a different planet compared to the other GC riders. Both Mikel and Pello said they were going well, but their ‘going well’ was hanging on for dear life, unfortunately. I was happy to see Pogačar bounce back on stage seven after losing time on stage six. As a fan within the race, it’s still exciting to see those two battling with each other, albeit 30 minutes down in the gruppetto and catching snippets over race radio.
I sometimes drop back to the following cars to watch the race unfold on the TVs they have. Seeing the speed those two went up the Tourmalet was ridiculous. I think if I j
