Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Trans portugal Day 4

More and more tired!!!

yesterday there was a race leader change that is now gijs, im in 3rd a couple minutes away from ignacio and with Marco right behind me.

the stage begun, you guessed, with me dropping back on the leaders, today there was a lot of mud sections at the begining and with all the guys around me i get nervous ;)

after the firt climb of the day that was around 4km with some very hard parts i really was feeling dead. the downhill was Fast and i managed to go all out without worring about crashing.

there was then a flatish part where i could really pedal hard in direction to Fatela. I pushed a group all the way and dropped in the Fatela climb that was cobble stone and steep. at km 45 i finally got back to the lead group of 6, that was a relieve and also a surprise to feel a lot better at that time. from there i really didnt want to do much other than trying to hang wout with the boys. it was a constant up and down, river crossing, mud and water and i was already having a load of problems with my arms. especially the right one that make the shifting, to the point where i just stopped using the rear deralium and had only 2 gears, the big ring and middle ring ;) more and more torture!!!
despite some efforts of tearing apart the group it stood compact except for joep, the race leader bro.
i had several problem to follow whats left of the group in the last km as it was a terrain that forced too much my arms but was abble to get to the finish line and sprint in that group, i was last of course ;)

tomorrow we will leave monfortinho and have Castelo de vide as destination, a place where i did a small training camp last year so i know the roads.....ups....its MTB...right !!!

sorry for the lack of care with writing but i really need to get sleep in !!!! but you get the point

3 comments:

sica said...

vamos lá, aperta contigo Campeão.

sica said...

vamos lá, aperta contigo Campeão.

Dirk-Jan said...

Obrigado for keeping us up to date on your efforts!! Great that you are third with a stage win in a field of experienced MTB riders. How do my fellow Dutchmen get so fast on hilly sections???
Good luck for the rest of the race,
DJ