A tough day for the team

Stage 4 today. A stage that looked a lot easier on paper than it turned out to be in reality. Barely visible on the profile, but packed with short, steep ramps and lots of twisty, technical roads. The perfect profile for a breakaway, because it’s simply very hard to control.
Our mission before the start was clear. No GC rider was getting away, and preferably none of their teammates either. If possible, we wanted one of us in the break fighting for the stage. We only succeeded in the first part.

The first hour and a half was incredibly intense. Teams fought hard to get into the break, but nothing really stuck. Aarco, Vendée U and Vorarlberg all wanted representation, so they kept neutralizing each other. Every time one of them moved, I moved with them. We would have been perfectly happy with one of those teams in the break, but certainly not all three. If that happened, we’d be the ones chasing all day.
Eventually we lost the numbers game in front during break formation. A group went clear with one rider from each of those teams and none of us. The only upside was that there wasn’t an immediate GC threat in the move. Still, we weren’t prepared to let them disappear up the road. At that point we also weren’t entirely sure who the best-placed rider in the break actually was, apart from knowing it wasn’t one of the GC favorites I had been marking.

So we started riding almost immediately after the break formed, around km 65.
After dealing with a puncture and a mechanical earlier in the stage, so it took some time and quite a bit of energy was spent already once we got the whole team organized at the front. Until around km 105 we managed to keep the gap below 3 minutes. After speaking to some of the other teams, it became clear we weren’t going to get much help.

The exact reason is still a bit unclear to me. None of the continental teams had one of their well-placed GC riders in the break, while several other teams did have riders sitting there only two or three minutes down. Of course I understand letting the break fight for the stage win, but eventually the gap drifted out to five minutes anyway. Maybe I’ll have to ask them around the dinner table tonight. 😆

Since nobody wanted to help and we’d already spent enough energy controlling, we eventually stopped pulling as well. Final damage: I dropped to 10th in the GC, now sitting 3:22 behind the leader.

Not the best day. That said, there’s still plenty of climbing to come, and that’s where this race will really be decided. So nothing is lost yet. It was simply a tough day: me marking GC moves all afternoon, and the boys working really could to keep the break under control. Once again, big thanks for what the team is doing here.