Conclusion Volta Tarragona

Today Matt and I mostly rested in our room all day. He had problems with diarrhea all night and didn’t feel like doing anything. Steve didn’t think I should ride but I still went out for about an hour to see if it would make me feel better. During the stage nothing changed but there were a lot of attacks from a Dutch team in attempt to get John out of best foreign rider. By the end of the day he was still in third place on the general classification, the best under 23 rider, and best foreign rider. I still feel a little sick to the stomach but mostly better. This race didn’t go too well for me but I won’t let it get too me. I still have many more races to come and got some good training in the mountains.

Stages 4 and 5 Volta Tarragona

Today was a bad day for both Matt and I, but it was a very good day for our team. Matt and I were supposed to ride 20 k out to the 5km uphill time trial (TT), do the TT and do the 100k road race course. As we were riding out to the course there was a tough headwind. I wasn’t feeling well and felt like throwing up. I ended up throwing up three times before we got to the course. When we got there Steve said we should go back. Matt was feeling decent at the moment and did the TT course. I just sat in the team van trying to keep warm. Then Matt came back and said his stomach hurt too and he felt like he had diarrhea and like throwing up. Steve gave us some Diet Coke in an attempt to get our stomachs feeling better. Then we rode back to the hotel with a nice tailwind and rested for the remainder of the day. John got fourth in the TT and did well in the road race today. He ended up third overall by the end of the day.

Stage 3 Volta Tarragona

First of all Matt and I had to get pointed in the right direction of the race course. We got to a town called Reus and were looking for a road called C-420. There were a lot of signs for it but none lead to it. Some Spanish people saw we were confused as they were driving by us. The stopped and told us to follow them. This got us off in the right direction. Today’s stage was tougher than yesterday’s but I felt better, so it was better for me. I felt a lot better on all the climbs. It is strange that in cycling you can feel like crap one day and feel good the next. There were three notable climbs that we did. They were all not very steep. The first climb was about eight kilometers long. The next two were about five kilometers in length. The funny thing was that there wasn’t supposed to be a third climb according to the stage profile, but the descent off the last climb was very awesome but caused many, including the yellow jersey, to crash because they were taking stupid risks This 140 km ride took Matt and I about 5 hours. In the race the front group did it in 3:45. John once again finished seventh today, which we had the opportunity to witness because we finished our ride about three hours before the stage finish and it finished in the town we are staying in, Salou. Some Spanish riders who abandoned today named Miguel and another whose name I forgot drove us to the finish. Miguel said he rode his bike a lot competitively since he was about twenty, and he now owns a bike shop. He is twenty six now and just rides for fun. He said this race is very tough for 18 year olds. The other rider was twenty. The Spanish people I have encountered so far are very nice. John will probably move up into the top ten in GC after his great ride today. Tomorrow is the five kilometer uphill time trial in the morning and a 100 km road stage in the afternoon. Matt and I are going to start very early and ride both of them during the same ride.