Apart from some amateur team donning a jersey very similar to the old Coldeportes one, I was the only one wearing a kit not supplied by the race organisers.


A 4 rider break got away at the start of the race. I was hoping that the amateurs could bring them back, and I wouldn't have to waste energy on a chase.


With about 40km left, a rider decided to attack. He joined the break, and they got a bit more of a gap.


I went on the attack on the 3rd last hill, and joined the attacker from previously, who ended up dropping the break.


It wasn't hard to get past him, but he was surprisingly able to stay rather close.


That is, until the next hill, when I made another attack and seemingly dispatched him for good. I looked around to see some fans - most likely residents of the nearby houses, I mean, I don't think anyone would travel to see this race - cheering for me. However, I knew they wanted the amateur to win. Hell, even a part of me did.


But that wasn't to be. I put in a solid effort on the remaining hill and subsequent downhills. I crossed the finish line 3'49 ahead of the next rider, who just out-sprinted the mid-stage attacker. No need for me to celebrate; I wasn't expecting less.

Our holidays don't finish for another week, but I decided to ring up some of our new signings and ask them if they wanted to go for some training. Everyone I called was available, so Pinot, Dennis, Montenegro, Chaves and I went for a training ride.

We decided Argentina was the best place, as myself and Montenegro were already there, Esteban was in Peru, Rohan was in Western Australia, and Thibaut was the only one making much of a trip, as he was still in France. Having decided the country, it wasn't much of a question that we would ride the route of the queen stage in the Tour de San Luis, which me, Jorge and Esteban will likely be participating in at the end of the month.

On the flat part, we got our legs going and got to know each other, but once we got on the final mountain, it was all serious. It didn't take long for Thibaut to get away, and we wouldn't see him again. Rohan got dropped about a third of the way in, while Esteban got away about three quarters up. In the end, Pinot won by about 3 minutes, Esteban came in about 45 seconds ahead of me and Jorge, who I beat in a sprint, and Rohan was last by about a minute and a half.

So, conclusions:
Thibaut is a beast, and will do really well for us this season.
Either I've gotten a lot better on mountains, or Esteban's got quite a bit worse.
Rohan is about where we expected him to be. He actually did quite well, and can win us some stages in time trials and do well in shorter stage races.

Not wanting to be left out, the sprinters tried something of their own. Jagoba and Leonardo took young Colombian Christian Torres and the world's best U23 rider last season, Alex Diluca, out for some sprint training in Diluca's home Canada.

The reports I heard were nice. Alex was able to stay with Jagoba on the flat sections, while as soon as the road went over 0.5% the Canadian was winning. Christian was also doing well, while Duque wasn't able to keep up.