SSTraining_MartinAction I had fun today. It was one of those days where I had an endless supply of ammunition at my disposal. Though my legs would hurt, I could still keep going.

The day started very fast. Big breakaways would get a gap, then a team would chase them down, uphill and down twisty descents. It was tough and we were happy for the pace to ease off before the Serra da Estrela climb - Portugal’s most famous mountain - so we could top up the fluids.

Tyler did an awesome job of placing us at the bottom of the climb. The three guys who contested the finish attacked hard at the base. Trent and I were in a group of about 15 with Tom P just behind. When the pace slowed on a slight downhill, I passed the group to up the tempo a bit for Trent (as he was front group yesterday). But I ended up getting a gap, so I rode my own tempo up the rest of the climb.

I got caught by Azevedo and an Italian on the descent. We kept catching people from the day’s breakaway until we were seven riders going for 4th place. But only me and the two Italian guys were pulling. I guess the others were cooked. So I attacked with 2 km to go and just got caught by Mancebo at 150 m (last 2 km were uphill).

For some reason, the young rider classification in this race is U24. Now normally it is either U25 (Tyler would have won the jersey yesterday) or U23 in which case I would now be leader. Strange but even more annoying for me is that the 27 seconds I lost yesterday has proven damn important.

Oh well. Just have to make amends tomorrow won’t we!