Stage 5 - Volta a La Comunitat Valenciana

Final stage and it started out wet, nasty and cold. The rain stopped falling from the sky, but the road spray made it feel like it was raining from the ground up.

As expected, there was the usual final stage desperation from teams with riders who were empty-handed so far at Volta a La Comunitat Valenciana - VCV.

My teammate Stefan Küng did a great job forcing a strong break of six. Towards the end, the roads proved to be very fast and open, and despite an awesome effort, Küng was caught heading into the final kilometers. We quickly switched to setting things up for my roommate this week, Jurgen.

We did the best we could to position him into the final kms, and he ultimately did some amazing self-positioning and technically savvy riding to launch a boss sprint to take the win.

From my end, I was happy to limit the shivering and wrap up this two-week block of training and racing with BMC Racing Team. It was fun to race with some of these classics guys, who I won’t see again for a few weeks.

I’m heading back to Girona tonight, which is a nice change. This is one of the very few races where I can travel by car! Next up--some recovery, training, and then back at it for the Abu Dhabi Tour in a couple of weeks.

📷 GettyImages/TDWSport