Will Frischkorn's Tour de France diary, stage 7
Ouch.
Today was on! The first true blood comin’ out the ears, kick each other in the balls, scrape knuckles on the road sorta stage.
Last night David sent out a message to all of us to "mentally prepare" ourselves for some havoc out there. We all lined up on the front line after signing in and collecting our towels (seriously? Towels? C’mon) as leaders of the team overall classification.
In the neutral I was beside Jens Voigt and he was joking that he wasn't going on the attack, prompting snickers all around, but pointed at Moreau beside us and said "but that guy sure is."
Right he was. The flag dropped, and as soon as he had a clear line he was off, with me fixed right on his wheel. Twenty seconds later I looked back and realized it was just the two of us. The hole was beginning to be dug.
Five or six kilometers ─ all uphill ─ later, we were caught and the attacks continued to fly. We were trying to put one of us in every move, and then give David the opportunity to come up when he felt it was the right time. So, attack, after attack, after attack, after attack ... that was the first hour-plus. Hincapie passed me at some point and said he'd averaged 360 for the first hour ─ crazy numbers on rolling roads.
At what seemed like a good time about 60km in, Martijn and I went back to grab bottles; headwind, big road, lots of other guys doing the same. Oops. Big time. Just as we got back into the field the race turned right, went uphill on a small road with wind pinning us in the gutter, and POW! The race was in bits. We settled in with a good size group and began rolling for the long haul.
Up ahead the battle continued full blast and there are going to be some seriously aching legs in the morning.
The first half of the day is up and down on small roads again so look for another crazy race on the tube. Some entertaining television for sure!
The organizers were shooting to switch it up a bit this year to add excitement and thus far ─ at least from the inside ─ it seems like it's been some quality, action packed racing.
As we head into the mountains the next few days it's only going to get crazier!
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