Hey Folks,

Well I finally found the time and energy to get onto another post.  Its been a very very gruelling few days here at the Vuelta for different reasons.

Stage 7′s time trial was greeted with the most horrible conditions, the rain was coming in sideways and the slick surface of the Valencia formula one track and town streets made for a treacherous course.  Like I said, for me it was just an A – B exercise complete the course and get back to bed as quick as possible to start recovering before hitting the mountains.

My highlight of the day though, was seeing the Team NZ base at the America’s Cup village.  Our bus was parked up just outside their base and I got a moment to have a chat to a few fellow kiwis before the start which was really cool.

Though before long we were back on the start line ready to attack the mountains for the first time.  Stage 8 was a real test, with small roads, hardly a meter of them being flat, the peloton spent most of the day in single file just praying the elastic wouldn’t break.  Though for me and 30 odd others who don’t enjoy climbing that much we decided enough was enough on the second to last climb and rolled in about 30minutes down on the days winner Damiano Cunego.  Don’t get me wrong though this was no joy ride, we still had to climb the 21km col to the finish.  It was quite a surreal scene at the finish, after riding up heavy clouds all day we broke through them with 3km to go into clear sunshine and a very warm finish.

Yesterday was much the same though a little more controlled and the peloton profited from normal sized roads which made a huge difference.  Though we were hit with the most incredible wall at the finish, I was running 39/27 and virtually at a stand still.  In just 5km the days break away lost over 4minutes, and the lone leader Rein Taaramae went from having a Vuelta stage win in sight to finishing 111th over 8min down!  Just brutal.

I was kept busy though as the sun shone we all felt the heat on our backs so hydration was super important.  I must have been back to the car no less than 15 times to get biddons, at 8 biddons a time I sure got some extra power training in lugging them up the climbs.

Hopefully today will be a little more relaxed with rolling roads and likely a small bunch kick.

Back soon, my photos have been pretty limited so far but here a few of different things I have snapped during the tour.

1.  My team mate Remi Di Gregorio, relaxing after a stage with the l’equipe newspaper and compression boots on.

2. My new rig for the race, felt like I was 12 again so excited to ride the thing.  Electric gears, and wheels so deep you just scare the rest of the peloton off.  Don’t recommend them for under 70kg riders though…

3. My room mate Wes and I planned our stage in the bus.  Assuming the break would go on the first climb, the leaders team would take control, and then the GC riders would light it up with 2climbs to go.  We did over estimate them a little though, as we made it to the last climb without too much trouble.

Back soon,

Tim