Alberto Contador suffering after Stage 7 of Paris-Nice
There was a very good lesson taught today in Stage 7 of the Paris-Nice cycling race. Going into this stage, three-time Grand-Tour winner, Alberto Contador had lead of 1:13 over fellow Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez and showed little signs of weakness. This stage had nine different climbs and the attacks came fast and furious. The peleton was moving along at a good clip and then a break occurred at 65 K to go. Contador was so pre-occupied with neutralizing all the attacks that he forgot to eat and drink enough! At 40K to go, he started to bonk (they called it “hunger knock”). With about 17K to go, Sanchez attacked and dropped the lead group, including Contador. And then during the last few K, Contador hit the wall and completely dropped off the pace. You can see in this video (at ~1:27) as he falls back to the 2nd chase pack and they just plow right through him!
For any of you that have ever had this happen, it is just an awful feeling. I’ve had it happen a few times, both running and biking. You can barely do anything. So, the lesson is to always make sure you have enough food and drink! Or, at the very least some $$ to buy something (I’ve done that) or a cell phone to call for a pickup (yup, done that a couple times too).
