Tour of Pennsylvania

www.tourofpa.com

A promising race for the future and for myself, the beginning of the race went okay for me though I was not in the health I was for Galicia. I did not allow myself to rest as much as I could have after the stage race in Spain so I while I had strength I had poor condition. I could push a gear but not recover. This showed in the race.

My prologue time trial was okay, 21st place, but lacked my top end. It was nice the race did not allow time trial bikes as I don’t spend much time training on one.

On the second day, the first road stage I put myself in the breakaway and around 20 kilometers from the finish my teammate Steven who was in yellow for winning the prologue jumped to bridge up to my group. The plan was for me to close the gap for him, so I dropped back to him and brought him up. I spent a little more time pulling the break then the two of us finished with our group around a minute ahead of the closest chasers and three minutes ahead of the peloton.

The third and longest day we began to the first mountains. I was sitting 11th overall at this point so the plan for the team was to work for me and Steven who was still in the yellow jersey. My poor condition was beginning to show in a direct way at this point. I had to dig to put myself in the front group for the 30 kilometer run into the finish. There was a lone rider with four minutes on us coming down from the climbs, so me and two of my teammates drove the pace of the group bringing the breakaway back just before the finish line.

I was sitting at 9th place overall for the fourth and shortest day. I still had the effects from my efforts the day before and from my low condition coming into the race. This stage was nowhere for me and my condition would get the best of me. I lost a good deal of time and my teammate Steven would loose the jersey.

My condition had not improved for the fifth day and I worked early on to prep Steven for an effort to regain the jersey. The race was going according to plan as Steven had two minutes on the peloton with as he entered the finishing town of Pittsburg. The course marshals dropped the ball though and could not get the cars off the road before Steven got there. He ended up getting caught before the line.

The final day was another criterium and not in condition talk about. Due to a tornado warning the race was stopped early. Then though the race was restarted, due to poor course conditions the prize money for the stage was withdrawn and the overall classification was prematurely finalized. Some riders would continue to chase each other around, but with nothing left to race for our team decided to save it for big coming races.