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Adam Hansen's Giro diary
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Australian Adam Hansen rides for Team High Road and is hoping to have a better Giro d'Italia than last year, where an early crash forced him to quit the Italian Grand Tour. The reigning Australian time trial champion is a support rider, but one who has chances in breakaways. The double winner of the Crocodile Trophy (2003 and 2005) keeps a diary for the Cyclingnews readers, sharing his experiences in the hectic of a three-week race.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Stages 5 to 7: Taking it easy
Since I wrote last when Mark {Cavendish} won his first stage in the Giro, we already had our minds set to win another. However, the next few days were not his days at all, too hilly and hard for the sprinters. So it gave us all-rounders a chance to show our stuff.
Stage 5 was flat out from the gun. Crazy fast, and normally when we get clear of the public a lot of riders like to take a rest stop to answer the call of nature, but there were too many excited riders for that today. Pino [Marco Pinotti] stopped, and [Frantisek] Rabon and I just looked at each other, thinking that was the last time we will see him. For the first hour and a half it was single file and totally crazy, holding on for your life and hoping no one would drop a wheel. After we got back to a nice pace we saw Pino again, complaining about why they had to go so fast when he stopped. Rabon and I just laughed.
235 km is a long stage, but lucky for us that was the distance after it was cut short! 265 km was the first plan, but the riders took a stance over the super long transfers and an extra loop in the final was too much. But still it wasn't going to stop us from trying to get into a break! Like always at the start, I was playing my cards and trying to go with what looks like the right move, but this day wasn't my day – and this break made it to the finish without me.
Then with the first half mountain stage, like always I tried again to be in a break, and even was in a little one for a while but missed the one that went – not having the luck! So it was a simple ending for me in this stage, as my three goals in this race are: help the team; be in a break; or ride as easy as possible to save energy for the other two goals. That's what I did, took it easy to save energy.
