Stage 7 tour of california

Stage 7 was the premier stage of the 2011 tour of california. It featured 3500m of vertical climbing in just 120km. The race was won in 3hrs 30min so that means 1000m of vertical climbing per hr so was a reasonable demanding course. Today our tactics were to have 1 guy in the break which we had with francesco belloti taking his chance for a day infront of the race and our climber damiano caruso had a great day finishing 8th. I took it very easy and just looked after peter as tomorrow it will most likely end in another sprint so for sure there will be work to be done so when peter put up the white flag with 20km to go i dropped of with him to pace him and protect him and save as much of his energy for tomorrow also. Luckily that meant today was a nice easy day for me which is what my system needs at the moment to get over this chest infection. I should be in perfect health just intime for the 14hr flight back to italy on monday!!!



The course was very nice todaya nd rds more reminisent of the ones we race on in europe. Was crazy to think we were racing just on the out skirts of los angeles only 30km from the city centre. Those mountians behind the city are not only good for big giant white hollywood letters it turns out they are also pretty good scene for a bike race. Last day tomorrow and finishes in the golfing town of thousand oaks so i will be certain to check out the links in amongst my turns working on the front of the bunch.



Big day tomorrow



Cjw

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