Tour des Fjords
June 2, 2015  

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A great weeks racing up north in Norway

Being the bridesmaid is never nice , but being the bridesmaid twice for the 2nd time again in another tour is getting a bit frustrating now , hopefully a win is coming somewhere. 

I had really good sensations in last week's Tour des Fjords in Norway with claiming 3rd on stage 1 after chasing back after being caught behind a motor bike that crashed into our peloton. I'll say that again , a MOTORBIKE crashed into the peloton. Just crazy sometimes the amount of the risk the "safety" officials take to ensure our safety , sometimes they are more of a nuisance than anything else if they take risks like that . Luckily no one was seriously injured but still frightening . Anyway , it's cycling and sometimes it's just crazy.

The 2nd stage was freezing cold and was pretty close to the same feeling I had in Milan San Remo 2013 in the snow , the only goal was crossing this finishing line with the group . I had no feeling in my hands and most of the peloton was pretty shattered at the end of the day. Imagine, opening your car window in 5 degree weather and getting rained on for 6 hours, its gets pretty chillly.

Stage 3 was another good day out for the team and I and we really put the pressure on . We had a really nice breakaway with most of the Gc contenders but we were caught as Kristoff's team was strong enough with the help of some other teams to bring us back. I got full backing from the team and managed to do a decent sprint coming 2nd behind Kristoff and slotted into 2nd overall.

With the stage 4 being an objective and chance to shake up the GC it ended up being a bit of a disappointing day as all the main contenders watched each other and marked each other out the race . It was a real shame and negative at the same time but that being said we stuck to our plan and tried to bring it back even though we didn't have to. We limited the damage but it wasn't enough . I eventually rode away with Boasson Hagen on the final climb but it was a case of too much too late. And I had dropped to 10th overall as a breakaway had stayed away. It was so weird how many teams just gambled but that's cycling , it's not always someone controlling , sometimes riders have a go and are rewarded for it. 

The final stage was pretty much to try win the stage with me and they boys did a great job bringing the break back before the final climb allowing me to attack with Boasson Hagen again and we had 2 Katusha guys as company. Haller was the man the most to gain but with 7km remaining and not much time between us and the bunch we had to all commit to the end. Unfortunately , Boasson Hagen got the jump on me and I finished 2nd again in the final sprint. I was disappointed to be honest as the team did a great job. We laid it all down , gave it a crack and that's what matters.



The final sprint!

The exciting thing for me is that I haven't felt this good yet all season so I'm looking forward to the upcoming races like Dauphine and the the big goal being the Tour de France. Hopefully someone else can be the bridesmaid next time and I'll be bringing the flowers home.

Until next time