Midge has been bringing you the Final KMs this week, but I pulled rank for this race. Why? Because it was a surprise win by The Sacred Haunches™ himself. Fabian Cancellara looks as hungry to win races as ever.
What a day, what a fatigue!
Today’s race was another climbing day for the peloton and a break of 23 got away, with Spartacus in amongst them. He took his chance on the long descent off the final climb and his descending skills proved to be too much for the other. Michal Kwiatkowski and Tiesj Benoot took second and third respectively.
“Alain [Gallopin, directeur sportif] told me to go full gas in the downhill, to just try, and by the bottom, I had 45 seconds. Then I was just fighting and fighting to the end.”
(This is a half-hour video, so if you’re looking for the final KMs, fast forward to around 23.00 for Fabs’ solo ride to the finish)
As an added treat, here is Fabs descending like a stone, between cars and around motorbikes, to catch up to the peloton in the 2009 Tour de France.
Race website: Challenge Mallorca; follow the race tweets with the #ChallengeMallorca hashtag