120 professional cyclists took the start Sunday in the Spanish one day classic Clasica Almeria. Among them were Tom Peterson and five of his Garmin-Cervelo team mates. The parcours on the day saw three categorized climbs along the 180 kilometer route characterized by sparse vegetation, unrelenting cross & tail winds, and gruelingly undulating terrain. As the cyclists crossed kilometer zero drops of rain began to fall on the dry arid landscape and upon the Spanish roads infamously known for their oil slick attributes when wet.
Immediately from the neutral racing was aggressive. The American Garmin-Cervelo team responded in unison covering and initiating moves over the first 60 kilometers, each rider took turns powering into short lived escapes, each distinguished by an imperfect composition of teams. At kilometer 95 the race came to the second of the three mountain classifications and aggressive racing continued. Peterson Bicycle’s Tom Peterson responded to the aggression and accelerated to cover a chaos of attacks all the way over the mountain causing the peleton to split into bits of 20 rider groups. Tom continued to ride aggressively on the decent off the mountain where numerous riders found themselves on the ground due to the oil slick nature of the road. Navigating the fallen riders Tom was soon in a select group of over 25 riders. No one in the group was eager to work with the others and so the pace slowed. Behind however, more crashes marred the peleton and in fact it too split into four groups, so despite the slow speed of the front group, the groups behind were not speeding towards the finish line either. Finally the groups came together and a small 3 rider breakaway was allowed to ride at two minutes ahead of the peleton.
The sprinter teams took control of the race smelling the scent of a field sprint and began to reel the three riders in the front back in. At the end of the day the Garmin-Cervelo team was satisfied with their day of racing having been in every move of the day and felt they had good condition after a very hard day of unrelenting racing. Tom Peterson spoke on the day of racing saying “I had a big surprise today, normally coming straight into a one-day race I have problems getting my legs going, but today from the gun I was feeling really well. Straight away I was in moves, initiating moves, doing everything I was capable of. For sure there was a moment when I was a bit afraid of the roads; they were so wet and slippery. I’ve never been riding my bike straight and felt like I was slipping before. It was a bit nerve racking, but at the end of the day everything turned out all right, I’m really happy with my condition just coming back from sickness at Algarve. Good things are to come for sure. Next race is eroica in Italy, I think it will go fantastically.”
Tom will use the next four days in Girona as preparation to continue with his current form in the Italian one day classic Monte Paschi Eroica.
-Peterson’s PR Team
