I’m really looking forward to riding for Dumoulin next season
Wednesday, September 5, Stage 11: Momuey to Ribeira Sacara Luintra (208km)
Yesterday morning, a TV journalist came up to me at the start, thrusting a microphone under my nose.
“First of all Nico, congratulations on your new contract. The news came out this morning.”
Although I’ve recently signed for Dutch team Sunweb for next year, I thought it was a bit strange because the team had told me it was going to be announced today.
The guy was so confident that Sunweb had told him all about it and that it had already been announced, that I just answered his question and gave him my thoughts, not realising that he’d just tricked me into it.
By the time the stage was over, it was all over the internet which probably spoiled today’s surprise.
Riding for a Dutch team will be a change for me and I’m really looking forward to riding for Tom Dumoulin next year, who I think is a real Tour de France contender.
This morning, with seemingly everyone trying to get in the break, there was so much attacking and counter-attacking that it took two hours for it to finally go clear.
In the chaos, I found myself in the second-third of the peloton, around 30 seconds down on a very technical descent after 55km.
Things could have been worse if seventh-placed Miguel Angel Lopez hadn’t punctured on the descent and his Astana team-mates hadn’t waited for him, and drove us back to the front.
After regaining contact in the feed zone, after 90km, another third-category ascent loomed and, with no food left, I just told myself to give it one more go and if it didn’t work I could drop back to the car for food on the descent that followed.
‘Demma’ (Alessandro De Marchi) and Dylan Teuns got into a group on the climb and just as they were getting clear, I followed Bauke Mollema across to the break.
Containing 19 riders, it looked a good group until I noticed Frenchman Thibaut Pinot of FDJ in the move.
Having started the day just two and a half minutes down on race leader Simon Yates, Pinot’s presence put the prospects of our escape in jeopardy.
“Nico, you speak French,” said one of the Astana guys. “Tell him if he doesn’t sit up then Astana are going to ride behind and bring us back.”
But I knew that Pinot wasn’t there by chance. It was a 10km climb. He didn’t just float into the break. He was there because he wanted to be there. A lot of guys gave out to him, trying to get him to sit up but to show he had no intention of doing so, he attacked on the descent, with 100km to go, and Dylan went after him.
We had around four minutes, as Dylan and Pinot dangled 30 seconds clear on the next climb, the rest of my group were attacking the daylights out of each other and eventually 10 of us came together at the front after 140km.
I thought things would settle down then, but Mollema attacked on the descent and it kicked off again.
On the third-category Alto de Mirador de Cabezones, with 30km to go, Dylan, ‘Demma’ and I were still there and when Katusha’s Colombian Jhonatan Restrepo jumped clear, ‘Demma’ shouted at me to follow him.
It took me a while to get across and a couple of kilometres after I did, I heard on the radio that ‘Demma’ was coming across the gap so I stopped riding until he joined us, making three up front.
Near the top, ‘Demma’ asked me
‘Nico, what do we do?”
“I’m empty, ‘Demma’,” I replied. “Just go harder.” So he attacked and rode clear of the chasing Restrepo.
Saved
Climbing on my own, an FDJ soigneur saved me, handing me a bottle with a gel taped to it just before the chasers caught me, with 17km to go.
Even then, they were still egging Pinot on to do all the work, which was great for ‘Demma’, who was opening a gap with Restrepo on the last drag.
Thankfully, ‘Demma’ had the legs to get away from the Colombian and took a much-deserved stage win.
Behind, the attacks continued but we were so tired that they were virtually in slow motion and I managed to take eighth on the stage.
I’m disappointed that I hadn’t the legs to stay with ‘Demma’ on the last climb. I was fine on the wheels but just hadn’t the power to go it alone.
It was good to be up the road and great to see ‘Demma’ win. We’ll celebrate tonight but I’ll have to try and recover a bit tomorrow.
Vuelta a Espana Live, Eurosport, 2.30pm