Skorajda ne morem verjeti, da je to Giro d`Italia in da sem danes jaz na odru za zmagovalce. Dan se ni dobro začel, ob 9ih sem šel na ogled proge, fajn je deževalo, tisti zadnji U ovinek pred ciljem pa me tudi ni navdušil. Standardno ogrevanje in procedure pred startom pa je hitro ura 13:20. Grem na start, samo še 2 minuti pa bo. Komisar na rampi je meril moje kolo, ko reče da je predolgo??! KAJ?! Kot vedno v takih momentih, nobenega našega nikjer. Najdem enega direktorja, iz avta daje rezervno kolo, na start pridem 20 sekund preden me spustijo. Vmes ugotavljam, sedež je prenizek, nimam bidona, preklinjam, preklinjam, Res nimaš sreče Rogla, si mislim. V tistem trenutku tam sem želel samo preživeti, skozi ovinke, pa bo kar bo. Na približno desetem kilometru proge mi z balance odleti števec, krilim in poskušam dopovedati spremljevalnemu vozilu kaj se dogaja, a ne zgodi se nič. Nič, pa zgleda res nimam sreče. Vso pot sem moral odpeljati brez bidona in brez števca, jezen, gledal table za kilometre, zelo počasi v ovinke. Na klanec sem se dobro počutil, pa sem sklenil da brez števca moram pač iti ful gas. Na koncu sem se tako matral, da se mi je zdelo da ročke na kolesu ne bodo zdržale. Hin! Bil sem dovolj hiter, da sem ušel hudemu dežju, super. Čakanje je bilo sicer dolgo in stresno, a takrat sem že naredil, kar pač sem in izkazalo se je da sem dobro naredil, haha. To je bil najdaljši kronometer v mojem življenju, me sploh ne moti da sem na vrhu, sploh po nevšečnem padcu v prejšnjo nedeljo. Danes sem vesel, ker se je borba do konca ponovno izkazala za pravilno odločitev, jutri je na srečo prost dan, plan za prihodnje dni pa ostaja enak – borba borba borba! Hvala vsem za čestitke, pa še nekaj; par let nazaj sem takole startal enega izmed svojih prvih rekreativnih vzponov, s sposojenim gorskim kolesom. Na nek način se je začela moja kolesarska pot in extra kulsko je videti, kaj fascinantnega ti življenje ponudi na poti, če le greš pogumno. Zdaj imam vsekakor boljšo opremo, haha ! 😀 Slišmo!
It is hard to believe that this is Giro d`Italia and that I am the one that is today on Winners podium. The day didn’t started well for me, at 9 o clock I went to check the course, it was raining, that last U corner before the finish line didn’t impress me either. The usual warm up and procedures before the start and the time was quickly 13:20. Only 2 minutes to start when I leave for the ramp, and the race commissar tells me that my bike is too long. WHAT?! As usual in those situations, there is no one from my team, finally I find the team car and sports director gives me a spare bike, I arrived at the start line 20 seconds before I start. Then I realized, the saddle is too low, I don’t have any bottles, and I am cursing. You are really out of luck Rogla, I say to myself. . In that moment there I only wanted to survive the TT, safely through the corners. At approximately 10 k of the race, my Pioneer (meter) flies from my handlebars and hits the ground. I tried to show to my team car that I have lost something, but had no luck with that either. I was angry and felt good on the climb, and since I’ve lost the meter I had to go all in, ful gas. At the end I suffered and thought that I will break the handlebars….Died! I was fast enough to run away before the heavy rain. The waiting for the results was long and stressful, but I couldn’t change anything at that point anymore and it turned out to be very well done. That was the longest TT I ever did in my life, I don’t mind being on top, and once again I got the confirmation that fight till the ens is always a good decision, tomorrow luckily there is a rest day, but the plan for the next stages stays the same – fight fight fight! Thank you for the congratulations, and one more thing: the picture is taken few years back, when I started one of my first recreational climbs. In a way that is where my road started on a borrowed MTB and it is very good to see, what fascinating things life sets for you, if you are brave enough to take the road. I have better equipment now, that is sure! 😀