May 20, 2007 – Last Friday I stepped foot in Ireland to take part at the FBD Insurance Ràs. This eight-day stage race is a one of a kind, especially with the Irish weather – rain, wind and cool temperatures. But what really make this race difficult is that the number of riders per team is limited to five. By having such a small number of riders per team it dissolves the strength and creates a more aggressive race, since it is almost impossible for any one team to control the race from the first day with only four riders protecting the team leader. Our best bet for facing this challenge is to take the whole race day-by-day and wait for the main hills coming on the last few stages.

Today was the first stage, 157 kms from Naas to Templemore. The stage was mostly flat with one difficult part at the midpoint. Our goal was to cover most of the attacks and try to secure one rider up the front. Straight from the gun, attacks were coming from everywhere. We got lucky by having Jesse Anthony catching a good wagon only a few kilometers into the race. From that point we only had to cover moves to help the break getting away, while Jesse was working hard with his five partners out there.

Coming off the climb, the break had about 3 minutes on the field and it looked like no teams were about to start a chase. The climb was a good test for all of us. A 6km ascent on a narrow road, so small you couldn’t fit a SUV in there. When we came across the summit, only 20 riders were remaining in the main field and our team hadn’t suffered any loss. After a slow pace down the hill and everyone coming back together, a few teams started to collaborate to organize a chase. With 25 kms to go Dominique Perras’ Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast team took care of bringing everyone together closing on the last 2 min lead that the leaders had.

When the remains of the break where caught, we took control of the race and set the pace at the front of the field – mainly to avoid being swarmed in or getting caught in crashes. Our goal was to bring Jesse up for the sprint to give him extra time bonus since he had already gained some by taking the KOM on the day.

With 3 kms to go things got wild and we got pushed from both sides and I lost a few spots in the final kilometer. With 500m to go mark I managed to free myself from the bunch, but I found myself about 20 men down. Still thinking that Jesse was following me, I gave all I had left and managed to move up to fourth spot.

I finally realized after crossing the line that I left my teammate behind when I started my lead out. Looks like we still have a few things to improve on our lead outs. But it’s coming along and with the climber’s jersey os in our hands along with a fourth place finish. We have nothing to be disappointed about!

More tomorrow”¦