Not a whole lot to report today… A nice break for sure! It was a fun little time trial, just under 11 km long. Got on my TT bike out here for the first time ever on the trainer an hour before my start. Needless to say I could have used a little extra time to get accustomed to the setup. But that’s kind of how it goes out here - you get what you need, everything is taken care of… but like everything else in cycling, timeliness is a rare bonus.
The course was super windy and dry, thankfully, but I was blown around quite a bit in the first kilometers and big, sweeping farm roads. The race was basically flat until the last 2 kilometers, which very gradually began to point upwards. By 500 meters to go, the pitch was quite steep, easily six or seven percent gradient. The course was moderately technical, with eight turns, two of which were chicanes. Yet another reason to have had a bit more practice on the bike!
I had a good go. I felt very satisfied with my effort. I was a bit over a minute down on the winner, though not sure about my exact time or place - under 16 minutes and somewhere in the middle of the pack. Our two GC leaders both placed in the top 50, one in the top 20, with both in the top 25 overall after the stage. We have a lot to ride for over the next couple days, should be fun! Tomorrow and Sunday I will race for a stage result, so hopefully I will have an interesting report to go with it!
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