May 26, 2008 – The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya is the third oldest stage race behind the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia and we just wrapped up the 88th edition. For me, and many of the North American cyclists living in Girona, it is our ‘home’ race and takes place on many of the roads on which we train.

This year’s edition of the Volta was slightly easier – on paper – than past years as it there wasn’t a long mountain time trial, or even a mountain top finish, to settle and solidify the general classification. The one mountain stage split the peloton, but a dozen riders were still within a minute going into the last stage and another 30 were within three minutes of the leader which made the race very hard to control as many riders could threaten the lead, even on the flattest stages. The tight race for the overall victory made the racing, fast, relentless, uncontrolled and exciting. A rarity in most stage races these days, the race wasn’t settled until the final finish line in Barcelona was crossed; and, there the leader’s jersey changed hands for the last time.

I began the race feeling good. I had had a couple of good weeks of training in the mountains around Girona and could feel my fitness improving as my weight dropped and my power increased. My goal was to jump in breakaways and to go for a stage win while also helping out our sprinter, Bernard Eisel, in the mass sprint finishes, and our overall classification contender, Thomas Lovkvist in the hills. Eisel came close a few times with a second and third and Tommy finished 10th overall about 20 seconds out of first.

In the mountains I felt great as we rode into the high Pyrenees over roads we know from training. I had some bad luck, flatting at a crucial moment, when the peloton was strung out and flying at 60km/h in a valley before the major climb of the day, so I never made it back to the front. The next stage, I attacked like a madman to get in the breakaway, made it, got a good gap, but was caught with just under 20km to go on the final ascent of the day. Annoyingly, the breakaway never worked well together; with one rider in the group at two minutes from the leader, the peloton never gave us much of a gap, and as soon as the finish line was near and the gap close enough to bridge our fate was determined and we were devoured by a hungry peloton charging towards the line.

All in all, I felt happy with my performances during the week. We didn’t come away with a victory but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I attacked when I could, the team rode well, and we were close to the win on several occasions.

In two weeks I will race the Dauphine Libere – another ‘home’ race for me as I have lived in the region the race passes through, and a start/finish town, for two years when I was racing as an amateur for the Velo Club Annemasse. Racing on terrain you know is always a big advantage and there is nothing better than seeing a few friendly faces at the start and finish line either. I will be gunning to capitalize on my fitness there as well.