Katheryn Mattis, first to cross the finish line, wearing Soft Kore White Pearl C28.
In Katheryn Mattis’ words:
“As much as I would love to give a blow by blow recap of today’s stage, I am a wee bit tired and have not slept great in the past couple nights.
“We went into the stage with a solid plan of how we wanted to start the day and from there, depending on how things panned out, we would adjust on the fly. Although time to the GC leader was several minutes, we knew we still could tick away at the time difference.
“Since the first climb, 6k long, was less than 10k into the race, Manel (our DS) instructed the team to go full gas from the gun. What a beautiful site it was to see Andrea, Carmen, Kat and Kristin rotating through on the front. I had to work my way up to the front and brought Mara up too, so it was the 6 of us all lined up. I am sure the rest of the peloton was caught by surprise at our fast pace off the start line and I would have loved to have an aerial view of things.
“Kat gave a HARD pull to the base of the climb and Mara pulled through and set a hard tempo up the climb. I must have brought my climbing legs with me today as I was able to hang with Mara, Evie, and Emma (who was in the yellow jersey). Mara set the pace the entire time up the climb and although I got gapped about 500m from the summit, I was able to catch back onto them on the fast, technical descent.
“The four of us stayed away until the course took us onto a more wide-open road, and we were caught by a larger group of riders. Ina launched a massive attack and got off with another rider, but they were brought back. A few more attacks went and it was not until Ina attacked again and was followed by someone else that the peloton sat up. I tried to bridge but could not get away or make a dent in their lead.
“We zoomed through the start finish line and I remembered Manel telling us that there was another climb right out of town. I bided my time until we hit the lower slopes of the climb and then, when the group seemed slow enough, launched an attack on the right side. I got away solo and bridged up to the two leaders. I was a bit unsure what exactly to do next so I set a steady tempo as the road continued to twist and turn upwards. Two more riders bridged up to our group so we were a group of 5 now, with two girls from the same team.
“For some reason, I was not entirely happy with this group of riders and put in another strong attack. I managed to get off solo and kept my head down and pressure on the pedals. Eventually, a Cervelo rider managed to bridge up to me and as happy as I was to have someone with me, she would not work with me as the gap to her teammate, who was in the yellow, was too big (I think well over 2′). I did my best not to get discouraged about her just sitting on my wheel and continued to push hard (but not bury myself completely as we still had about half the race to go!).
“The course continued to wind around the hillside, steadily climbing the whole time. Manel eventually made his way up to my break and informed me there were two riders chasing (from the same team) behind by about a minute.
“Finally, we reached the summit of this climb and I was happy to see the road go down as it would provide me with a slight respite. On the descent, when the course got fast and technical, I would gap the Cervelo rider. Manel encouraged me to keep the pressure on and try and drop her. Eventually I did, but a few k later, the two riders went zooming by me. I wish that Manel had told me they were coming just so I would have had a heads up.
“Working together, they opened up a gap on me and definitely had better skills going downhill than I did. I fought hard to minimize the damage but I was pretty spent. I could see them ahead but as hard as my legs could go, I just could not close the distance.
“Suddenly, we entered a round-about, and I see the two riders go left while the moto bike that is leading me goes right! OMG, what do I do? Manel is in the radio telling me to follow the bike and that I am going the correct way and they were led off course. This leads me to leapfrog in front of them! Manel is encouraging me in the radio to keep going, I am now in front of the race.
“At this point I have about 15k to go. There is one more climb that is about 3k long and then all downhill. Just get over that climb, just get over that climb. Manel does a great job encouraging me in the radio and thank goodness as there were several points at which I just wanted to stop pedaling and get off my bike and sit on the side of the road.
“The 2k to go sign to the top of the hill was both a blessing and curse and I think at this point I was eating my stem and my legs felt like they were pedaling squares.
“Fortunately the climb was not too steep and I crested it and took a deep breath, only 4k to go! I did not take any risks on the descent and was so happy to see the 1k to go flag.
“My first European win was awesome! What a good, hard day at the office and the team rode great.”