The 3-stage event includes a 90 km circuit race, a 17 km TT, and a 95 km point to point race with several big climbs and a mountain top finish.  Stage 1 was a bit of a roll around, which went pretty much to plan. Last year I had spent much of the second half of the race chasing a break and fretting over my GC position when in reality, because of the fast finish, its nearly impossible to gain a sizeable amount of time. So this year we were very disciplined, and while I rode at the front on the KoM climbs to set tempo and discourage anything crazy like a big split, I generally rolled around the back and conserved for the huge efforts on the next 2 days.  Sure enough, a break of 2 got away, and they killed it all the way to the line, getting 40 seconds on the peloton.  Doug and Andy racing with me for the weekend, worked to keep the break in check, and while I was marginally concerned, sticking to the plan is almost never a bad idea.  We all finished safely in the bunch.

Stage 2 is a 17 k TT that is slightly uphill almost all the way, 1-2% most of the time, and with a decent headwind on Sunday afternoon, was an absolute bear.  Having raced it twice before, and inspected it again this time, I was reasonably confident of knowing how to mete out the effort.  TT’s aren’t that complicated – you try to gauge your effort so as to arrive as an unconscious snot-bubble as you cross the line, and you check the scoreboard.  With Ryder’s inspirational ride on Sunday morning, I was happy to be another Canadian to take the Pink Jersey, with a win in the TT, having put 30 seconds on second place, and over 90 seconds on each of the breakaway riders from the day before.  Getting the jersey however is never as easy as keeping it…! Kudos to Andy in particular here as he went eddymerkx and still couldn’t achieve the elusive DFL!