Day one of the Giro completed. I didn’t expect to be back here but falling off my bike and breaking my collarbone were not planned during our scheduling, so after the operation and during my recovery I knew that my best option for returning to racing was the Giro. So here I sit tonight, writing my first Giro entry.
Today we came in second –- a result that we are happy with because we know that we were beaten fair and square by a great team. We started too slow and didn’t make back the time, so being the fastest team in the second half of the race wasn’t much use. It’s given us some valuable material to learn from and that is what we’re going to do. Columbia did a great ride and our hats are off to them.
We’re confident that we did everything right in the build up — the last week has been great. Training at home for this whole race was perfect and it demonstrated that our concept of having as many of the team as possible living in Girona works. It really feels more and more valuable as we grow as team. Only recently Bradley, Cam and CJ have moved there and now that we have Allen Lim in town so much we are able have organized team training almost daily. Mind you, we still got second!
As sportsman we live in what is essentially a clear-cut, black and white world: you cross the line first, you win; you post the fastest time, you win. Although it isn’t really as black and white as that, there are times when you don’t cross that line first or post that fastest time, and yet you can feel like you did yourself justice and can accept defeat with surprising ease. This can be because you know you did everything right in your training and preparation and come the race you did yourself justice, be it through your tactical choices or the panache you exhibited, and lost in the comfort that the choices you made were the right ones at the time. We knew we hadn’t ridden it quite right, hadn’t done ourselves justice, and that is why we can find things to learn from. Although second against the best teams in the world is pretty good, and its just stage one, I know that we have the talent and desire to show ourselves in some of the 20 stages left!
Long live the Argyle!
-David
