Location:
Catalunya, Spain

Overview:
Lucas Euser is riding the 2008 Volta a Catalunya this week with his Garmin Edge 705 and recording all the stages - except the opening time trial - for you data hungry fans out there.

Stage 5 of the 2008 Volta a Catalunya includes a couple of smaller climbs as it heads east towards the coast. Starting in Asco (135 m), the course heads up the first small hill to Gandesa (410 m) before descending to Miravet (85 m). The first of the two category 3 climbs - the Alt de Falset - is just 2.9 km long with grades ranging from 3-5%. After a short descent, the course heads up the Alt de Bataille (540 m) for a 9.1 km climb with grades ranging from 2-4%. Besides one small hill about 35 km before the finish, the course heads mostly downhill to the finish in El Vendrell (10 m).

Difficulty: Moderate

Distance: 104.68 miles

Total Elevation Gain: -156 ft.

Google Earth:   View on Google Earth

MotionBased:   View on MotionBased

Download Ride Data:   GPS Device   GPX   HST   CRS

Race report from Johnny Weltz

With the first 100 km slightly downhill and a lot of riders with big time losses yesterday, it was a fast start with everyone trying to make the breakaway. A five-man break went pretty late with one rider - Flecha - high on GC. Their gap on the peloton came down fast in the final circuit.

Over the final category 2 climb, Tom Danielson gave a big hand to Dan Martin (right). Tom helped position Dan in the right place on the climb all the time. So when the race leader blew and a group of 15 took off, Dan was in it.

The climb was not long enough for Dan’s break to get a good gap, so it was caught by a bigger group that included Tom and Christophe Laurent. Meanwhile, a group of five managed to get and finish with a 10″ gap off the front group.

Slipstream stage 4 results
1. Pierrick Fedrigo 5:06′01″

41. Christophe Laurent +11″
51. Tom Danielson +11″
53. Dan Martin +11″
69. Blake Caldwell +2′55″
73. Tom Peterson +6′
103. Lucas Euser +10′25″
124. Trent Lowe +14′56″

Slipstream GC
1. Remi Pauriol 14:29′33″

28. Dan Martin +1′51″
65. Lucas Euser +13′17″
66. Christophe Laurent +13′30″
77. Blake Caldwell +17′05″
91. Tom Peterson +23′57″
96. Tom Danielson +24′43″
110. Trent Lowe +28′38″

Today’s flat stage 12 saw one long solo breakaway that got caught with 10 km to go and a mass sprint finish. Julian Dean (right) and Chris Sutton worked their way into the final fray and finished 13th and 17th respectively. There were no major changes in the overall.

Tomorrow’s stage 13 is the last flat stage before the race hits the mountains and things get real.

Slipstream Results Stage 12
1. Daniele Bennati 4:05′29″

13. Julian Dean mt
17. Chris Sutton mt
81. Christian Vande Velde mt
137. Ryder Hesjedal mt
140. Pat McCarty mt
142. Danny Pate mt
145. David Millar mt

Slipstream GC
1. Giovanni Visconti 49:00′17″

16. Christian Vande Velde +9′46″
58. Ryder Hesjedal +32′28″
77. David Millar +44′53″
153. Julian Dean +1:39′35″
158. Pat McCarty +1:47′37″
162. Danny Pate +1:50′42″
166. Chris Sutton +2:00′45″

Despite how normal I am feeling right now, my head injury is actually a little more serious. In my crash I suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, resulting now in a subdural hematoma, which is basically a big bruise on the right frontal lobe of my brain. The subdural hematoma on my brain is still a good enough size to warrant a lot of extra caution for a while.

It could be really bad if I were to hit my head again too soon because my body currently doesn’t have the ability to absorb any extra blood from a new injury, or even anything that increases my blood pressure, and therefore increases the bleeding in my brain.
Extra bleeding here causes the brain to swell, and that is really not good.

So here is the bummer part. As of now, I’m pretty much out for the season. It is too much of a risk to hit my head again if I were to race and train normally in the next 2 or 3 months. So I’m hanging onto some hope that everything will heal perfect and quick and maybe I can race some in September and October, but only if I am at 100%.

Read the full update.

Location:
Catalunya, Spain

Overview:
Lucas Euser is riding the 2008 Volta a Catalunya this week with his Garmin Edge 705 and recording all the stages - except the opening time trial - for you data hungry fans out there.

As the longest stage of the 2008 Volta a Catalunya, stage 4 is mostly downhill as the course heads south towards the Mediterranean coast. Starting in La Seu d’Urgell (780 m), the first 180 km of the course are downhill to the village of Flix (70 m). But the stage isn’t all easy. There’s a final category 2 climb - Alt de Paumeras (510 m) before the downhill finish in Asco. The Paumeras climb is 9.6 km long with a grade ranging from 5.6-9%.

Difficulty: Moderate

Distance: 136.27 miles

Total Elevation Gain: -2,610 ft.

Google Earth:   View on Google Earth

MotionBased:   View on MotionBased

Download Ride Data:   GPS Device   GPX   HST   CRS

Race report from DS Johnny Weltz

Today was by far the hardest stage of this Tour of Catalunya. It started out really fast with a five-man break going from the gun. With a couple of favorites in the break, the peloton was forced to maintain a high speed in order to keep the group at a comfortable distance.

The hardest part of the day was the last 40 km with a lot of up and down and around on very rough roads. The roads were extremely slippery and resulted in total crash chaos and many broken collarbones.

We had our youngster Dan Martin and Lucas Euser in the final break. Lucas couldn’t hold on at the end and though Dan was there for the final, he crashed out of the front group just before the finish. Jason Donald didn’t finish because of a crash, but he seems to be okay with a lot of bruises.

But all in all, a very good ride.

Slipstream stage 3 results
1. Cyril Dessel 5:10′30″

30. Dan Martin +2′13″
57. Lucas Euser +3′04″
88. Christophe Laurent +13′53″
96. Blake Caldwell +13′53″
99. Trent Lowe +13′53″
103. Tom Peterson +18′01″
122. Tom Danielson +24′57″

Slipstream GC
1. Cyril Dessel 9:23′03″

35. Dan Martin +2′09″
61. Lucas Euser +3′21″
91. Christophe Laurent +13′48″
96. Trent Lowe +14′11″
99. Blake Caldwell +14′39″
107. Tom Peterson +18′16″
125. Tom Danielson +25′01″

Seattlepi.com profiles Wenatchee hometown hero Tyler Farrar and his preparations for the Tour de France. Tyler says he has had his eye on the French race since he was eight-years-old.

From the article:
“I’ve been riding for as long as I could remember,” Tyler said. “It was just a normal part of growing up. My parents were into it, and I got into it. Once I started going to races, I knew this is what I wanted to do.”

When Tyler was 8, the family took a vacation to France. For two weeks, they followed the Tour, hanging back in their car, going from town to town, absorbed in the atmosphere and the scale of the event.

There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like my home…away from home.

The first road stage of the Volta a Catalunya started just a few km’s outside of my new home away from home, Girona, Spain. Yesterday, we raced on roads that we have trained on for the past two years. I’ve done race after new race on roads I’ve never seen before in places I have never even heard of. Now, finally, I got to feel exactly what the Euros feel in almost every race they do. I finally got to enjoy the home field advantage.

I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was to ride on familiar roads. Normally, we do our best by going off the profile and listening to our experienced teammates and directors. But when you are out there on the road, it’s extremely easy to waste energy trying to second guess the unfamiliar. But this time, the tension of positioning was off and the focus was 100% on what was around each familiar corner. It’s only a matter of time I will be this comfortable on every road in Europe!

Each day I will be trying to give you, the viewers, an up-close look at the stage with my Garmin Edge 705. I hope you enjoy the data.

Here’s my first Garmin Featured Ride: stage 2 from Selva to Banyoles.