Valle d'Aosta

The next race after the Baby Giro was the Valle d’ Aosta.  It was an unknown to me as to how I would come out of the Giro as it had been my longest stage race by over double. 

So, I set off a few days before the race started to try and acclimatise a little before the race started.

After a few days of training and getting a little more used to the heat we headed over to Aosta where we would be staying not too far down the road for the next week or so during the race. 

The first day would consist of a short 2.7km prologue starting in the evening which would kick the race off.

After somehow missing the start I was a way down the standings but still not half a minute down on the lead which I was sure wouldn’t make a huge impact on my overall result.

Stage 1- This was a really tough stage on the cards going up 2 major climbs both around an hour long. I didn’t feel great this day so it was just a case of getting as far as I could with the group and limiting loses. This meant I was dropped on the 2nd long climb from a reduced bunch. With a big mix up on the valley after the decent the race was stopped and the break then allowed to go off early, with the bunch then cruising into the finish as they were unhappy about the situation (getting sent the wrong way). 

Stage 2- I was hoping the legs would be feeling better with it being another hard day on the cards. The stage started off fast through the narrow roads on the valley.  Then coming into the first climb there was a big crash which messed up my race as I had to sort my bike out and then I never reached the bunch again meaning a 4 hour solo ride to make the time cut.

Stage 3- This was the longest stage with it being 180km in the mountains so it would be a long day out, unfortunately the legs still hadn’t come round for this day with me doing some stem chewing from the start. As I was already a long way down on GC from the previous days I went in the gruppetto to try and save a little legs and hope they could come round a little for the next few days.

Stage 4- Another really tough day on the cards possibly being the queen stage with there being 5 climbs, 3 of them being backloaded at the end of the stage all being over 30 minutes long equating to over 4000m of climbing for the stage. Today my legs finally felt something like what I’d hoped with me attacking as soon as the flag dropped on the 25 minute climb, the pace was on for the whole climb with lots of riders trying to get up the road. I was able to get in a move over the top of the climb forming a break of around 14 riders after the decent. Once we’d finished the decent we hit the next climb which was a lot shorter but quite steep. We rode this really hard to get the gap out to the peleton then settled down in the valley with some riders not wanting to work. Once we hit the first of the final 3 climbs the gap was quickly closed down with people starting to attack each other. After using a lot of matches at the start I wasn’t able to follow the leaders and was caught from a group with Calum. We worked until the top of the climb with me then setting a pace for the next 2 climbs playing a domestic roll for Calum who was up there on the GC. I finished the stage in 21st which I was reasonably happy with having done a good amount of work and being in the break. 

Stage 5- The final day, I knew I’d be tired for this stage having done a lot of work the previous day also feeling a little under the weather. Coming into the final climb of the race I went up at my own pace to finish 40th.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with my results in this race having felt in good shape going into the race but not everything can go to plan and I was happy to get through a seriously tough race feeling a bit under the weather meaning the legs weren’t where I’d hoped.