Actividad nocturna

MA|PC Team Camp Day 6: Lactate Step Test

MA | PC Team Camp Day 5: 🐄 💩

MA | PC Team Camp Day 4: The finish line is through the back of a truck

MA|PC Team Camp Day 3: Members getting diagnosed with humongousism

Lamento —> Viseu

Alright, take two cuz the internet cut out and deleted literally this entire recap and I just couldn't be fucked to type it out again on Monday, or even yesterday on the rest day as it seems. 

What's crazy is as I type this on Wednesday, it's actually a pretty good reminder on why I think these are important for me at least to write because I am somehow managing to compartmentalize and clean the slate so friggin hard after each day that I am genuinely have trouble regarding what even happened on this stage. But I will try to do my best, as my brain hasn't been cooked completely to mashed potatoes juuuuuuuust yet, but BOY ARE WE CLOSE. 

Okay. So the race. How to describe it. Phucked. All day. Non-stop. CUZ THAT'S HOW THEY DO IT HEEEERRRRRRRRE. 

In another episode of "Let's make the starts terrifying," the flag dropped on a downhill, and when I say downhill, I mean like we were going 60kph when that comm blew that mf whistle and it was straight into switchbacks. Sketchy? Scary? Absotively, posilutely. Riders were taking flyers left, right, and center because I think everyone had it in their mind that this day could be a breakaway day because of the fuck off 30-kilometer climb that punctuated the route profile, so everyone was keen to get a gap..including riders on Anicolor who are currently leading the race??? Again, Tactics 101 says that if you have the jersey, you, uh, defend it, and that would mean making sure that your leader is protected with as many teammates as possible to ride tempo should someone dangerous get up the road. But trad tactics be damned, these guys were going for blood, and it just goes to show that the strategies these dudes employ sometimes don't even make sense to them given Artem Nych (Anicolor's race leader) was throwing his hand up in frustration and his own teammates were attacking the group to get up the road. Again, this tactic is valid and viable if the riders who want to get up the road are significantly down on GC so they are no longer a threat, and can therefore be used as a satellite rider later in the race, but that was not who was attacking. Dudes were only 2 minutes down and and some change. So yeah, that was annoying because it meant that the pace BALLISTIC. 

And I repeat, we were on a net downhill for the first 50 kilometers, so it was fast. But that's okay, because we had Laurent in the move that ended up becoming the day's break, and that was a tough fucking move to get into. There are days when you finesse your way into a move, there are day's when the peloton just can't be bothered to chase and will let the first people to attack go at the drop of the flag, but today was neither of those days. You had to be friggin strong to get into that move and Laurent absolutely was. 

There were a couple other potential threats on GC that ended up getting up there with him, so he simply sat in and was along for the ride as those that wanted a time gap drove the pace. This was great for him but absolute doodoo caca for us in the pack because it just meant that it was going to a tight-chain day for the entire stage. At no point did I ever feel like there was a lull or that I could catch my breath. 

We hit the base of the 30 kilometer climb and it was all I could do not to count down every meter as we worked our way up. There are a ton of climbs in this race that aren't actually that steep at all--i.e. between 3 to 4% average gradient--and this was one of them. Now you may see that and think, "Okay, 3 to 4%, that's draftable, how hard can it be," and you are right in that you are legitimately drafting on these clims, but that is honestly what makes them so difficult. They are ridden so fast and you are just barely going fast enough to be able to draft, but not fast enough where you can coast at any given point. It is a classic case of just being mid- to high-grade uncomfortable, but never over the limit like you are a steep gradient where the incline decides for you whether or not you are getting dropped. With anything north of 7%, I basically just accept my fate as I begin to go backwards and that is just fine by me, but there is a true dash to the ego when you get dropped on a 3% climb that I guess allows you to suffer a little more? 

Anyway, I miraculously managed to make it over the top of the climb with pretty much everyone else on the team there too, and then we proceeded to race a net-downhill for the next 40 kilometers, which was heavenly. Kinda. Sorta. Again, I'm not a descending whiz, but there are some folks here that could use some practice, let's just leave it at that. 

I whole-heartedly believed that I would get dropped on the last major climb of the day, an 8-km ascent at 3%, but again, going back to those low-gradient climbs, there is something about them that make you angry and force you ride out of your skin and BRÖTHERS AND SÏSTERS when I say was HWEEZING over the top of this climb...holy shit the wheezes I woze

I was gapped off a bit and was able to use the caravan to get back on and take advantage of Kieran's monster pulls in our little dropped gruppetto as well as benefit from an ever-so-slight lull in the peloton up ahead to get back on and actually continue to be in contention for the finish. Up in that group included Caleb, Ricky, and now Kieran and me. 

The finishing circuits were lumpy, but nothing crazy selective, and once we had caught the remnants of the breakaway, either folks were being cagey, or they were genuinely too fucked to pedal any harder because I swear there were some little kickers that I was ready for groups to go sicko mode on and it just never happened. At one point we were actually soft-pedaling over top the last climb. 

Prior to that, Caleb, who is on flying form, had sent a nasty flyer that looked viable after some other riders caught onto him, but they just refused to pull and he was quickly sucked back in the peloton and forced to sit up, the exertion of the effort catching up to him. Ricky would try to counter, but the pace at that point was just a little too high going into the last 5 kilometers, and so it looked to be a bunch sprint. 

Ricky would work to try to position me in the front, but sprintiest teams amassing their trains at the front, it was hard to barge our way in to any good position, so I managed to make my way into the top 20 wheels going into the last kilometer and when we rounded 200m to go I opened up, but the folks at the front were already miles ahead of me. I would grind my way up the finishing drag to finish 13th and promptly collapse across the finish. 

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Sam Boardman

Volta a Portugal: Etapa 5

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Actividad nocturna

MA|PC Team Camp Day 6: Lactate Step Test

MA | PC Team Camp Day 5: 🐄 💩

MA | PC Team Camp Day 4: The finish line is through the back of a truck

MA|PC Team Camp Day 3: Members getting diagnosed with humongousism

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