Ciao, Grüezi, Guten Tag, Bonjour!
The sharp climb each of the ten laps created a race where strongmen, sprinters, and climbers could each play their cards.
Our team was a fun mix of experience and confidence and youthful enthusiasm. I’d call us strong and hungry underdogs.
This technical course makes positioning and efficiency almost as important as having the engine to smash up thirty-five three to five minute climbs.
Hailed as the hardest one week of racing on the calendar, this race is known for attracting the best climbers in the world in their best condition.
Freezing rain, crosswinds, mountains, and good friends.
"We continued to hammer, fighting to the death, but I sensed the chasers toying with us and almost wished they would end it to put us out of our misery."
An update on my 2017 season opener with Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka.
Bingen Fernandez inspired us throughout the Vuelta with this Henry Ford quote: "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
Keep fighting.
Finally a hotel with strong enough wifi to post. The first ten action packed days have flown by. Enjoy!
I spent over six race-less weeks, watching the TDF on TV, and whipping myself through countless intervals. 2016 marked my 6th time racing the Tour of Utah. I've been on the winning team four times. Eager to return to the action, I anticipated our high altitude defence.
Oh La Vache!
I weaved to the finish, feeling downright ill, but believing, hoping, praying for Alex.
A stubborn resistance inspired by irrational hope and inflexible belief paid off. We both knew our worthy goal was impossible, but tried anyway.
It's a high speed game of chicken into every corner. Give an inch, lose a mile.
I came, I saw, I tried really hard. Another day in the breakaway, more race miles in the legs, and Moser on the podium.
Straight into the deep end... but hey, it's just like riding a bike, right?
The entire course was a tunnel of sound with 650,000 screaming partying fans. I'm proud to be a Virginian.
Do it yourself or die for the team. Fighting through a grand tour, whether attacking at the front or praying for survival, turns a body inside out and scrapes pretense from it's bones. By the third week we are exposed and vulnerable, calcified and inveterate. We need each other.