Alas, I came up short. One second in fact. But regrets? None. I could not have gone any faster today, the team couldn’t have riden any better.

Ciao Maglia Rosa.

Yesterday was the biggest day in this team’s history and, once again, the team turned in an impressive performance! We had the maglia rosa and we gave our all to defend it. With two guys down the road, it was our role to chase today and it was a rude day to have control. With nearly 10,000 feet of climbing over 207 km.

Then our luck turned, firstly having both Julian Dean and Dave Z go down in a crash. And then again, Dave Z crashing on train tracks, which has ended his Giro.

The boys continued to keep trucking all the way to the finish circuit, leaving David Millar to look after his mate Christian on the final lap. And on the finish lap, the race exploded!

In the final dash to the line, after nearly 6 hours and a super steep last 2 km, splinters appeared everywhere. Christian hung on for grim death, loosing the lead by only 1 second!

We are not disappointed. We came here and achieved our goal, and like I told the boys, anything else is a bonus. They all gave 100 percent and showed their class again today.

We will now go on the hunt for different goals!

Stay tuned - Whitey

The finish was a brutal, uphill battle and Christian did all he could to hang tight to the leaders. But a final sprint by the Spanish national champion and a counter-attack by Ricco opened up just enough of a gap to make the difference.

Slipstream Stage 2
1. Riccardo Ricco 5:48′35″

19. Christian Vande Velde +10″
102. David Millar +2′04″
105. Ryder Hesjedal +3′03″
144. Julian Dean +7′55″
182. Magnus Backstedt +11′40″
188. Chris Sutton +11′40″
191. Pat McCarty +11′40
194. Danny Pate +11′40

General Classification
1. Franco Pellizotti 6:15′16″

2. Christian Vande Velde +1″
85. David Millar +2′14″
97. Ryder Hesjedal +2′54″
131. Julian Dean +7′46″
144. Magnus Backstedt +11′31″
179. Pat McCarty +13′33″
180. Danny Pate +13′33″
192. Chris Sutton +15:56″

The circuit was littered with road furniture, adding to the already dicey combo of fresh legs and a hungry pack barreling down towards the finish. Someone dive-bombed Mike’s front wheel with 4 km to go, taking him out of the running. Martijn fought his way to a fine 8th place finish in the bunch kick. [Martijn pictured above during Tirreno-Adriatico stage 4.]

All in all, it was a solid week of racing that allowed us to get some much needed kilometers in our legs. Half of the crew is staying in France for Picardie, which starts in just a few days, while the rest of us are headed back to Girona to get ready for Volta Catalunya.

Thanks for reading!

-Blake

Slipstream final results
1. Thor Hushovd 2:56′48″

8. Martijn Maaskant mt
56. Christophe Laurent +17″
70. Blake Caldwell +38″
91. Jason Donald +44″
108. Steven Cozza +44″
120. Michael Friedman +44″

Slipstream final GC
1. Stéphane Augé 25:45′48″

33. Christophe Laurent +4′06″
46. Blake Caldwell +5′32″
59. Jason Donald +7′03″
96. Martijn Maaskant +22′24″
114. Steven Cozza +25′38″
125. Michael Friedman +27′16″

Said Millar: “We have one of the best teams in the race and we’re really determined to get the maglia rosa. I’d be happy if one of the young U.S. riders on the team got it.”

“He’s the team’s eyes and ears. He knows when a rider is hurting. He knows when a rider isn’t hurt but is acting like it. ‘I feel I’ve been up. I’ve been down. I’ve been sideways,’ Vande Velde said. ‘I wouldn’t say I’m the most gifted by any means, but I’m quite well-rounded in the best way.’ “

From the interview: “…there’s unlimited amounts of experience to resource from and everyone has their own little pieces to contribute. I think the makeup of the team is pretty exciting, it’s the first Grand Tour for a team that’s new, relative to the level that it’s at now and it’s exciting, you just go and try and make the best of it,” said Ryder.

Over here in France, the 4 (really 6) Days of Dunkirk turned out to be just 4 and a half days for me. However, that’s just fine. I came here to get some high power outputs and I got four great days for that. Unfortunately, I have been dealing with…

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Over here in France, the 4 (really 6) Days of Dunkirk turned out to be just 4 and a half days for me. However, that’s just fine. I came here to get some high power outputs and I got four great days for that. Unfortunately, I have been dealing with an allergic reaction to something since the race started. I have been dealing with nausea in and out, achy muscles, and hives all over. Every day it has gotten a little worse and yesterday I was full blown in the hurt locker. I sprinted around the circuit for an hour, then decided to listen to my body and stop hurting it.

I think being a professional cyclist is one of the best jobs in the world, but also one of the most confusing. It’s full of ups, downs, and constant struggle. Those who succeed learn how to correctly understand and manage the struggle to maximize the height of the highs. This seems to be my current theme as I am doing my best to comeback from my horrible injuries from the crash last September in the fastest way possible. So today, when my body said no, I listened. Now its time to flush this toxin out of my body and maximize the great training I got here.

Next up for me is the Tour of Catalunya, which is a good race for me. It is through my adopted European home region of Spain which makes it “familiar” for me. I know most of the climbs and the roads from either training or past races. I am excited for it for sure!

One last note about about Dunkirk was how much I enjoyed seeing all the juniors of each town come out to the stage starts. Each morning we went to sign in, a new local junior team was there in their respective team colors greeting us with smiling faces. There is nothing better to brighten your day than inspired kids!

Get out and ride! TD

We as a team have worked incredibly hard to achieve what we did today, and what’s important to me is that we had fun doing it, fun chasing excellence. For me, this is the start of the team’s next phase of growth on many levels. I can’t really explain it briefly, but I have that feeling.

I sit here looking around at the happiness we’re all living and can’t but help remember bumping into Jonathan and being introduced to Doug at the Tour presentation in 2006. I never dreamt what that encounter would lead to.

Jonathan and Doug have been constructing this for a while. They believed in it before anybody else. I came on as a ‘thinking outside the box’ moment from JV. The two of them aren’t here today because, to put it simply, they can’t be everywhere at once! But they’re here and the team we’ve built is doing what we dreamt it would one day do.

We won the TTT at the Giro today and Christian is in pink. He rode us into it those last 5 km and crossed that line first because he took us there. Whitey had tears in his eyes when we met him at the bus. He was crying out of pride. Whether we won or had lost, we had ridden it perfectly, the way we had spent the last eight days working towards. And that made him proud. And we were proud.

Jonathan has said, and I have repeated, it’s not just about the outcome, but the process. We were a living example of that today. Christian led the team over the line today, and behind him were over fifty people.

I think that’s nice.