27 July 2008

GP Inda 1.2 Caravate 175km 27.07.2008

I really liked the GP Inda last year, but as I had 3 team mates in the break I had to cover the bunch all day long. This year I wanted to make sure that did not happen again. After all, I love attacking, and I do well when I enjoy myself... Which means that I do well when I attack. At least that's what I tell myself!

A few kilometers into the race I went away with one rider for a while but we were brought back soon enough. After a flurry of attacks I got into another move that eventually swelled to 33 riders and included team mate Mountain Goat Matteo and two of my Aussie buddies. With the winding course the peloton would always have a hard time chasing so before long we had a gap of 3 minutes on the field.
With one and a half of the four and a half figure of eight laps to go Jaro somehow managed to get away from the peloton and crossed over to us in a moment when we had little cohesion. He came up to me in the bunch, asked how I felt and then asked if I would work for him today. I glanced over at him and told him that I was entirely at his disposal! After last week there was NO doubt about that!

Right after that I followed an attack and got away with about 8 riders and without Jaro. Oh no! But... before long he suddenly pitched up with a couple of other riders. With about 35km to go I attacked before the second last biggish climb and went away with one other rider. We immediately opened up a nice gap and were flying along nicely when a moto came up to us and said that a team mate was following us, on his own. I thought it was the other guys team mate but looked back to see... Jaro!

I could not believe it! Immediately I sat on and waited for Jaro to cross. As he got to us I put my head down and went, driving with all I had. After all, I knew that I didn't need energy for the final, I was working for Jaro today! All along I could not stop thinking how incredible this was. Merely 8 days later and here I was repaying the favour that he did for me last week!
In the last 25km I put in as much work as I possibly could and relieving Jaro of his turns as soon as possible, letting him be as fresh as possible for the end. Of course he still worked too much, but at least I tried! With 10km to go we started discussing tactics and I made sure that he only did one short pull before the final climb.

Eventually on the last climb of the day I put in an attack but was quickly caught and continued setting a steady tempo. Jaro waited nicely and then went hard within sight of the top. From there on it was a Fantastic final 5km to the line, sitting on the wheel of the Pagnoncelli rider. I put in a fake sprint just to please the crowds at the end, but with 100meters to go already sat up and celebrated like mad!

What a day! What a day!!!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The war goes on...!!!!!!! I wanted to be there!!!!! But I'm always in late!!! Miiiitiiiciiii!!!!!!!!!!!! BAKLEI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations for your and Jaro's last races. Go on like this

But what will you do when Jaro will do the stage for Tinkoff?

Will you ride the olympics?

Ciao Puri