Hot day out!

Just woken up from dozing whilst watching the pros on TV at the giro recovering after a pretty tough day on the bike at the Lincoln GP.

Was a fantastic race - large field and crowds on a brilliant course that goes right through the centre of the city of Lincoln. Hot sunshine for the race meant I was sporting my casper the friendly ghost look as I opted for factor 50 suncream, whilst my Polar cycle computer recorded an average temperature of 29 degrees celsius!

In the race we (sigma) missed the 14 man break from which the race winner came, and chased hard, doing which I just about blew my legs off trying to chase it back. Unfortunately started to cramp after about 30 minutes of riding hard as I was getting dehydrated, so had to sit in and recover for a couple of laps whilst grabbing a bottle every lap. I eventually got some strength back in my legs towards the end of the race and got into a small group ahead of a rapidly shrinking peleton, as riders went off the front and climbed off at the back.

Cobbled climb was hard, although position on this climb was just as important as how fast you could climb it because it was so narrow and riders were stopping in front of you all the time.

I saw a photo of me pulling a face up on BC gallery.

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/eve/ImageGallery.asp?gid=3464#

I should be in the third photo along in the slider

Matt was best placed Sigma rider in 12th. Good to see team mate rob riding and finishing along with James Williamson, who had both chased hard and sacrificed their day to try and give the team a chance of bringing back the break. A combination of the hard chase, hot weather, mechanical problems and sickness meant Wouter, Dan and Mike were DNFs, but they weren't alone as only 50 of the 180+ on the start line made it to the finish.

This will be a race for me to look forward to for next year!