Today we will cover 220 kilometers of polish countryside. There is a light drizzle outside at the moment so the morale is not as high as it could be.  I woke up with a little soreness in the legs, but that’s to be expected with the time I spent on the front yesterday and the fact that its my first race in six weeks.  My roomate for the week, Michael Albasini, and I made the mistake of leaving our window open last night to let in some fresh air. We woke up to hundreds if not thousands of these mosquitoe like bugs in our room. I am not sure how I could have slept through the night with these things all over the room.  Ignorance is bliss, eh?  Three riders did not take the start today as they had done San Sebastian on Saturday and flown here to just do a few laps yesterday and back home today. Pretty rough weekend I’d say.  After the Tour de France many rider’s seasons are finished, so teams struggle to fill teams at races.

I looked like a coal miner at the finish of the race. Covered with black dirt from the roads on every inch of my exposed skin, having spent the last 100 kilometers closing a ten minute gap to four riders.

We finished the race with four closing circuits. This race has been known for dangerous finishes and today didn’t dissapoint.  Cobbles are never a good thing and we had one kilometer to cover each lap. It was only a matter of time until there was a mass pile up and in that one we lost Konstantin Siutzou to a broken collarbone.  The stage would also not finish on a great note with Greipel only managing 5th today. Crazy finishes like that are impossible to predict or control.  Like they say, “tomorrow is another day.” Another day over 220 kilometers as well.
——————