"You just have
to ride hard, sweat and feel the burn; no excuses.
"I think it's an all-round triathlon today: you need to be able to swim -- my swim wasn't great, I was 5th/6th and I had to move up -- you need to be able
to ride hard, tactically and technically, and do a good run at the end.
Rather than compromising the road going abilities of this bike, the off-road configurations have made the Adventurer a really fun and enjoyable bike
to ride hard on all types of road surfaces.
They aren't particularly testing as first category climbs go, but expect Aru's Astana team
to ride hard to try to draw the sting out of Dumoulin well before the descent which leads to the finish.
They worked well together and had
to ride hard to keep Sagan and Van Avermaet, and the 10-man group containing Thomas, at bay in the run-in to the finish.
"When you try
to ride hard against it, it makes you groggy," said the 23yearold Oconer in Filipino after logging in one hour, 13 minutes and five seconds.
"We told them their attack was going
to ride hard and press, that their middies were going to run through people if they didn't play the body, so we didn't want to get in that emotional back-and- forth battle.''
Having already cycled 35 miles of undulating terrain and into a headwind by this point, few riders have the energy
to ride hard up the hill.
In Germany, as we've noted, Radler is a drink for athletes, cyclists for example (the word "radler" means cyclist) who want
to ride hard and stop for the occasional lightly alcoholic refreshment that won't trigger a wipeout as soon as they leave the gasthaus.
Samsung Suzuki rider Hopkins took second place in that race but had
to ride hard to move through from fifth.
In speaking to the convention assemblage, Heyden, also a Team Little Guy bike rider before being deployed to Iraq, thanked the crowd for cards, letters and packages of support encouraging the league group "
to ride hard" to Jacksonville.
"She is a very strong filly and likes
to ride hard," said jockey Badel after his win.