I got third today which was nice. I’ve come second twice in the Dauphine TT — the first time to JV by two seconds (which he never forgets to remind me of whenever we come within 300km of this region…) back in 2001, and the second time was to Lance, by a minute back in 2003. I’ve only done the Dauphine once since 2003, and when I did I wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders. Let me tell you that the Dauphine is not a fun race under those circumstances!
Today’s TT would have been a horror on a bad day, very windy and lots of long, long stretches of road. These are the sort of TTs that take a large amount of concentration as it is very easy to drift off into a trance state and take yourself off pace. The moment you do that you’re out the race. More technical courses are easier psychologically as you’re always in the moment tackling the terrain and direction changes.
I was able to stay very concentrated today… maybe a little too much. I was expecting a serious headwind in the final and so was a little conservative in the first half. Unfortunately the wind wasn’t quite what I expected so I ended up moving at warp speed in the second half (I was the fastest from the middle time check to the finish,) this was an error on my part but didn’t cost me the win as I would have still been off Grabsch’s time even if I’d ridden it perfectly. He showed why he is world champion today — that was a very fine ride, chapeau!
I had a lot of fun though. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone that fast for so long on a bike, for about 10km on the way back I was well over 60km/h. Rarely do I find a 54/11 too small, but there were times today when I was wishing for a 55 or 56 big ring!
So I continue to improve, tomorrow we tackle Mont Ventoux. My fiancé Nicole and sister Frances are on the mountain about 3km from the top. Oddly where they will be standing there is a large piece of road graffiti in blue and orange supporting Team Garmin-Slipstream and me. It must be some strange coincidence…
Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 4 results
1. Bert Grabsch 51.26
3. David Millar +0.39
30. Svein Tuft +2.34
89. Timmy Duggan +4.29
100. Dan Martin +5.01
106. Tom Peterson +5.15
112. Christian Meier +5.25
145. Steven Cozza +9.06
Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Cadel Evans 11h16.19
5. David Millar +1.09
37. Svein Tuft +3.38
86. Timmy Duggan +5.41
94. Dan Martin +6.13
96. Tom Peterson +6.20
102. Christian Meier +6.36
142. Steven Cozza +19.21
