Transitions to a New Dominican

And we’re back for Stage 4 of the Vuelta! We were so lucky to have another transfer day, and a transitional stage before tomorrow’s Mountain Stage. From the profile we had, the stage looked flat and we started with a tail wind. As we typically have done, we continued to have 2 starts. So we rode like 10km to get out of the city and then we actually started. It was very aggressive from the go and we rode the first 47km in under an hour. It seemed like the Dominican National Team had some issues getting their riders to the front to control, which meant for a very nervous stage. Most of the day a break of 4 riders staged away to take any chances for sprint points which made the bunch ride a steadier pace.

After the first hour it seemed that I was finding every pothole on the road and drilling it. At the 70km mark I decided to get bottles with another one of my teammates and noticed I was getting a flat, after a midfield crash happened, the pace slowed enough to actually stop and get a wheel, as my flat was a slow leak. Getting back through the cars was a little rough now since our team car was at the back of the peloton. I was able to get back easy since the pace was slower.

The nervousness continued as we started the final climb of the day, and there were more crashes that you could count with people overlapping wheels and people falling off the gutter. After getting to the top, we started a crazy decent. The road was like a war zone of potholes and crashes. I was lucky to not hit anything at the 50+mph we’re descending at. Also at the top we had absorbed the break of the day and it meant for a bunch gallop as we headed into San Francisco.

Once turning off the main freeway, the wind put everyone in the left gutter. It was strung out and everyone fighting for their inch of road. Here the carnage hit as people started to blow from the effort. Thankfully I was only victim to this once, but it was right after attacking so it made closing the gap that much more uncomfortable. With 20km to go a small grouppo of three riders made it off the front and managed to stay away until the end.

The last 10km were very strung out, and when someone let up from the pace another team would surge and bring up the speed. It was nonstop. As we hit the city limits we were filtered into the right lane, as stopped traffic filled the left lanes. Oddly enough people were attacking into the cars as hard as possible and at 3km to go a huge crash happened. Right before that I saw an opening on the right side of the road and moved that way and completely avoided it.

As we saw the last km, we knew there were to be 3 left turns, well there were. But there was also a 4^th turn that was unmentioned. So coming into the apex of turn three as I began to kick there was a guy directing us right. I pretty came to a skid to get around the corner and had to get my speed back up after riding at 50km/hour for the last 25km, this wasn’t an easy task. I came in a respectable 26^th…

We lost no riders and spent minimal time in the wind, so hopefully the day wasn’t as taxing. Unfortunately the heat was. It took some time in the pool and hot tub, then a cold shower to get my core temperature manageable. After 2 dinners, I am going to head to bed and look forward to the first mountain stage tomorrow.