That espresso I had on the bus must have done its job because from the gun I got to the front and started following moves. Along with my other teammates, except Bazzana, no group got away unmarked and eventually Lazlo dragged a break clear. This may not sound like much but it's such a huge contrast to the other stages that it makes me feel good. Previous days I've struggled for the first 20km to find my way to the front only to see the day's break already riding off into the distance.
We didn't stop there. After a very brief lull in pace to let the break's gap swell, we got together and basically rode as a unit near the front all the way until the bottom of the climb. Yesterday the run in to the climb had me absolutely pinned before the road even started to turn up, but today was different. All of us were at the front, surrounding Baz, swapping turns in the wind right next to all the "good" teams to ensure that we went into the base of the climb top 10 with him as fresh as possible. We were all a bit fried and fell of the pace shortly thereafter, but he got over the top with the leaders and we had done our job and it felt good. Yeah I would have rather finished in the lead group and been there to help him at the finish but at least I had done something. Today I was no longer pack-fill.
Bazzana ended up with a less than ideal result in the end, but we raced like we were supposed to and did all we could.
Tomorrow (yes, another race already) we race the one-day Giro della Romagna. It's 200km and tackles some decent climbs about 2/3 of the way through. Gonna be a tough one considering that probably half the guys didn't just finish this stage race and will have fresh legs. Yuck.
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