DYLAN TEUNS
BMC
So, sixth in Paris-Nice overall. I got a big welcome home on the Sunday night after a week that had gone really well, if not flawlessly for the team and me. On the plus side I did a really good time trial, came second on the queen stage, put in a few attacks, and finished sixth overall. On the down side, we lost Tejay van Garderen to crashes and I slipped out of the top five on the last day. Plus, I could have and should have followed Simon Yates immediately when he attacked on the queen stage to La Colmiane. I thought it was too far to go and I didn’t think I’d have the legs to stay away him. I thought I would actually be trying to limit my losses on a 16km climb. In the end I gained some seconds on most rivals. With hindsight I definitely think I could have stayed with Yates. You live and learn I guess. What was most satisfying for me was the sense of progression I felt in a couple of areas. One: it had been a 14-day break between the end of my last race and the start of the Race to the Sun and I finished top 10 in the sprint, so I hadn’t lost much. Then I nailed my time trial and that really helped get the team behind me – they could see right then that I was going well. Then I surprised myself on the queen stage by how good I felt. Every day the load was increased and I managed it well.
Paris-Nice generally suits me and the other riders you may see in the front at the hilly Classics. Plus the weather’s usually very changeable. Apart from the queen stage the climbs are all about four or five kilometres long, so there is a lot of opportunity for us. It was a good chance to watch the rivals and see how they’re going. But you can only tell so much though because we’re still more than a month out from the key objectives and there is some important racing still to come.
Now it’s time to put the feet up for a couple of days’ recovery. It was a hard eight days and it’s given me a bit of a sore throat. I don’t even want to think about getting sick now – I just have to be sensible. Then I have a training camp, the Tour of the Basque Country and then it’s the hilly Classics. The racing season seems to have a way of compressing time.