Riding with Gaspa in the mountains

“Over six hours in the saddle with 3200m of climbing. It was a tough day today,” Roman revealed in his online message. “The conditions are perfect here. We don’t have the same kind of climbs here as on Tenerife but it doesn’t matter at this time. The weather has been on our side so far, every day the temperature has been hovering around 25C, only the wind is quite strong,” the Astana leader added. “At first, I rode together with Viviani and Oss both of whom left on Monday but Gaspa arrived soon after that and now it is him who has kept me company on the training rides. Other than that, I am feeling great and everything is going smoothly. When I came here I had a toothache but the pain is already gone.”The two Astana riders are staying in an apartment hotel away from other hotels. “It is very peaceful here. The Saxo Bank guys are staying just around the corner but we saw them only once. They ride different routes than we do. I must say that time passes pretty quickly. We hit the roads at 10am, after the return we take a snack and relax, after that we go for dinner and get to bed very soon. Pretty tough schedule for one day!”