Stage 1a/1b - Coppi e Bartali

Winning day!  

It was a long one and I can't remember the last time I did two races in one day?!  We are back in Italy, but it feels so different from Tirreno. 

Physically, I am feeling much healthier than a week ago when I was literally hugging the toilet all night, but I can feel my body is still rebounding from that and paying the price from a week that was a wash in terms of training. Right now, it is more about getting back to baseline. 

Everything started in the morning with a 100-kilometer road stage.  This is a much smaller race, and we saw it immediately with super aggressive teams and slightly confused race organizers about where we were going in the neutral. We made it through the morning stage without incident and headed into the afternoon with big objectives. 

From the winning squad in Tirreno, there was only me and Damo, but as with most good TTT teams, the depth shows through the entire roster and today we had an awesome balance of youth and experience.  

Pre-TTT prep was a challenge with the course never really being closed for any inspection, another example of a smaller operation race. We knew the focus would be about riding off one another and getting good info from the car.  It was a very technical first five kilometers with a little more speed in the second half but still some roundabouts that make things technical at those speeds. 

We started fast, kept going fast, and I think finished faster!  I came off the group with around 2 km to go.  I know TTT's need to be an egoless affair, but my ego still takes a bit of a beating seeing the guys ride up the road.  Fortunately, it was enough to come out on top and it was all smiles on the podium.  My young teammate Rob Stannard is in the lead after his fifth place in the morning stage.  This dude is 20 years young!  Watch out world!  

I’m looking forward to supporting the guys and we'll take each one day-by-day as the racing will no doubt prove unpredictable and crazy at times as these Italian teams fighting like their national pride is on the line and the more international teams are looking to flex their muscle in a unique opportunity with a slightly less deep field.