Today the team manager gave me my schedule for the year. I’m happy with the races I have been given and I can’t wait to get the season started. Below is my schedule and an overview of all my races for this season.

2011 Schedule
	Aus Champs	1
	Arthur's Seat Challenge	1
	Giro di' Sardegna	5
	Vuelta a la Murcia	3
	Gran Premio Miguel Indurain	1
	Giro del Trentino	4
	Tour of Turkey	8
	Amgen Tour of California	8
	Tour de Luxembourg	5
	Break
	Post Danmark Rundt	6
	Tre Valli Varesine	1
	Vuelta a Espana (If we make it)	21
	Sparkassen Munsterland Giro	1
	Paris Tours	1
		66

Today I am climbing over the hills of Arthur’s Seat as a pro. I have improved since the last time I was here and now I am smart enough to see how I can win. 115km in length I am not going to go on a breakaway. I will attack on the downhill of the 3rd last or 2nd last climb.





The Race

Paez (Columbia Y Pason) and Baer (Netapp) are the first riders to attack.



A lot of favourites attack. I follow very closely.



I attacked with 7km to go.



300m to go. Le Mevel leading, Dan Martin 2nd, I am going 3rd but Van Garderan is right behind.



And it is Le Mevel who takes the win.



Martin takes 2nd; Van Garderan manages to nudge me off the podium. He takes 3rd and I finish 4th.

Results

The first stage showed the usual breakaway, the catch and the sprint. It was Pro Team Astana that showed they aren’t messing around here getting a 1-2 on the first stage. Gasparotto took the win ahead of Valentin Iglinsky. A good showing from the Australian Drapac team who had 2 in the top 10.





The second stage saw the hills kick in. The winner today was Lampre’s Damiano Cunego who out sprinted Matteo Carrara of the Vacansoleil team. The overall lead stays on the shoulders of Astana rider Enrico Gasparotto. Surprising young rider in 6th overall is young 16 year old Jak Love who is riding for the Australian Drapac Cycling Team. He is an underdog for the GC and is only 28 seconds behind.





Stage 3 was the second of 3 flat stages. It turned out great for Saur-Sojasun who came out with the win because of Frenchman Cyril Lemoine. Gasparotto shows that he is not giving up the GC easily with a 2nd place. In the GC Gasparotto extends his lead on Cunego, Carrara is still 3rd. Only noticeable change in the standings is young Australian rider Jak Love moves up to 5th overall. He is also leading the Young Riders classification and came in 9th place on today’s stage.





So stage 4 brought the final flat stage of the stage race. It was a breakaway that made it all the way today. The winner was Ruben Martinez H. From the Caja Rural team. He narrowly beat out Australian Ben King. Bringing home the peloton was Jimmy Casper. The top 10 in the GC stays the same heading into the final hill stage and final stage of the Giro de’ Sardegna.





The final stage. The last 6km are climbing and the rest of the ride flat. Today we saw the breakaway stay away again. It was Szczawinski who took the stage win for Miche. 2nd was Daniele Callegarin and then came the overall leader, Gasparotto in 3rd. In the GC, Gasparotto takes the overall win ahead of Cunego, 38 seconds, and Carrara, 46 seconds. The young Australian, Jak Love, got dropped from 5th overall down to 14th overall. He did, however, win the youth classification by over a minute to Thomas De Gendt.