We are now into August and into the big international races are just round the corner! One in particular, the G.P Capodarco 16th August. My form has been improving steadily and I've manage to churn out a couple of great results in recent races too, Trofeo Cita di Garrufo and the Giro delle Valli Cuneesi in particular.
The Trofeo Di Garrufo was on the 14th of July near where I live. It's was a UCI 1.19 standard race but seemed harder to me with 8 circuits of a 16km course with 2 hills in a circuit. The race was pretty hectic in the beginning, with everyone trying to get a man up the road in the breakaway, but every time the break went away, the team without a rider would bring it back. Finally, after 40km a group broke away with 17 riders and then followed by a second breakaway with 12 riders (including me!). As we got closer to the leaders we started to climb, I felt this was the perfect opportunity for me so I jumped across the gap before the race started going down hill. I was the only one to get across to the leaders, so we now had 18 up front and the advantage had now grown up to 3minutes and stayed that way going into the finish. The last hill was 25% and spilt everything up, I tried my best to be savvy in the final km's and I got 7th position in the finale, something I was really pleased with and looks good for the next few months!
Next
up was the Valli Cuneesi, another international race but this time up
in the Alps, and a level UCI 2.12 on top of that. The first stage was
the team time trial, 20km of holding on for dear life as my team mates
racked up the pace on a windy circuit! We were proud of our effort as
we got 10th on the stage and that was without doing a lot of preparation
for it beforehand.
The second stage was only
130km but finished on a 15km hill with an average of 12%. The first 40km
was 'same old same old' as the teams controlled everything. As the race
settled and the wind picked up as so did the pace, so I got myself to
the front ASAP as I knew there was a little 2km lump coming up. On the
crest of the hill it split and a breakaway of 30 had formed. I didn't
really see the situation behind me as after the race progressed I was
the only one from the team in the break, so I was pretty much hiding
from going on the front and trying to look after myself for later in the
day. The break had 4 minutes advantage and was growing so things were
looking good. The hill was full on from the beginning so it was just a
matter of survival of the fittest! At the end of the stage I was second
under23, second foreigner and 8th overall after getting 9th on the
stage.
The second stage was set up to really
split up the race as it was 150km with 2 hills. The first, a 6km climb
with and a average gradient of 12% and then the second of 7km, with and
average gradient of 10%. For the whole day my team mate where great,
looking after me and working for me the whole stage. After the first
hill it all split up and I was in the second breakaway, with 3/4 up the
road and I was in a group of 15. On the second hill it split up further,
with everyone in small groups of 2s and 3s. At the end of the Valli
Cuneesi I ended up 2nd under 23, 2nd foreigner and 10th overall in the
race after losing some time on the final stage. Going into the race I'd
certainly have taken this result in such a big race, the team were great
and I was happy with how I was feeling throughout, certainly building!
Overall, things are going well here in Italy, just trying to find time to relax with all the training and traveling. It's now reaching peak summer time so it's about 36-40 degrees everyday where I live, so this means being smart and training early in the morning before it really hots up! Anyway training is going well, life is going well and the results are coming now, just got to carry the form into the up and coming races! i.e GP CAPODARCO!
CIAO AMICI!!
