Ciao, Giro!

It was an emotional Giro.

There were flat stages and there were beautiful mountain stages. There were bunch finishes, a punch finish and break aways. Winners and losers, too many to note them all.

Riders fell, leaving the peloton in its saddest state.

Persistently, a rider battled without respite. He was deservedly rewarded with a jersey. The green jersey of the Giro.

And while two men scuffled for second best, as well as young riders for the white jersey, there was only one man for the pink colour of the Giro, his name was Alberto Contador.

Far from the colours of the Giro, another man, Spanish Xavier Tondo, senselessly left the pro peloton.

Moreover, in Belgium this time, a champion returned to racing and finally won his home Tour. What's next for Gilbert?

I can't wait for next year's Classics and Giro d'Italia.

A solid week towards the Tablelands

Around here, and after a forced and needed recovery week, I managed to put in some good, hard kilometers. And it felt great. True, I watched a few mountain stages of the Giro (and how could I not?) so it could've been better but having day's off work allowed me to sleep in and get out for rides in the warm times of the day.

A second ride on Thursday, the Club Fish & Chips Ride on the single-speed, helped to keep the numbers up and the easy spin helped to get rid of some lactic acid in my legs.

Again, it could have been better still if I had followed the script but high TSS rides made me also tired and by Saturday (and back to work for an early, early shift) I could not get on the bike at all. I slept instead.

A good week, now it is time for a rest again and the plan is to stay fit and fresh for the next eleven days. A bit of speed work to keep the legs supple and perhaps a race at Lakeside.

We will see.