Young Dutch rider Bas Tietema was one of the new recruits for the An Post Chain Reaction team at the start of the 2017 season and since lining up with the Irish team, the 22 year-old has been making steady progress which has seen him take bronze in the U23 Dutch TT Championships in June.
In the last week of July, Tietema lined up with the An Post team at the Tour Alsace (UCI 2.2) where he ended up on the podium after winning three jerseys.
The Tour Alsace was the first race that the Dutch rider took part in since a team training camp at altitude at La Molina in the Pyrenees of northeastern Spain earlier in July which he described the benefits of in a previous blog entry.
Below, Tietema describes his performance at the Tour Alsace.
Bas Tietema’s Blog Entry
My last blog was about the altitude camp in La Molina. It was my first camp at altitude, so I had no idea what to expect of my first races after this camp. But I can tell you now!
The first big race on the calendar after the camp was the Tour Alsace. A big stage race in France, known as one of the biggest races for U23 riders. Tour Alsace started with a TTT prologue and would include two big mountain stages and two relatively easier stages where there was a big chance for a sprint finish.
The prologue was superfast, high speed corners and pure power. The whole team had a super level and with some big guns from the track, a good result was a real option. And we did that with second place, just behind the Americans. We started the Tour Alsace in a fantastic way.
The first ‘real’ stage had a very tough final climb with a finish on Planche des Belles Filles. That’s the climb where Aru won his stage in this years Tour de France, a really tough climb with a gradient of above 10%.
I am a rider that’s built for the classics and a good time trial. When I train hard in the mountains, like we did in La Molina, I can climb pretty well, but when the real skinny climbers start to attack and race I am done. So I made a plan. I wanted to be in the breakaway and get as much as possible out of this stage. That’s what I did, I made it into a strong break and we got an good advantage on the peloton.
I went for a solo attack to take the sprint points and the meta volante – KM70 – sprint. That’s what brought me on to the podium on Planche des Belles Filles. As I expected, when we came to the bottom of the climb and the skinny guys of 65kg or less started racing, I couldn’t follow. I was strong but those guys are a different level! Haha.
I made it into a good group to the top and there the announcer screamed my name as the most aggressive rider of the day, “could Bas Tietema come to the podium!” Amazing!
In the days that followed, I tried everyday to take the points in the sprints, KM70 and in the mountains to retain my jerseys. It wasn’t easy because racing at this level is quite chaotic, no early breaks just full gas racing all day. But I scored my points after being in a lot of breaks, and by the end of the second last stage I was the leader of three jerseys – the points jersey, combination jersey and KM70 jersey.
The last day I wanted to go for a stage win, the GC riders went full gas the day before and I was hoping that this could be one of those days. I made it again in the break, which made it four out of four for my break participation. I took the points on offer again during the stage as insurance for all three jerseys. But then, we had the feeling that we could make it.
I was strong and was trying to keep the breakaway going. With 10 kilometres to go, we had an advantage of 1 minute, with 5 kilometres left we had just 30 seconds, 20 seconds with 3 kilometres left and then the peloton overtook me and my companions from the break with less then one kilometre to go. Sh*t happens but that is cycling!
All the same, I couldn’t be more happy about how I performed during this stage race. Riding on the attack is my favourite style of riding and I showed that throughout the entire week.
To win THREE jerseys in such a big race is amazing, three times a champagne shower on the podium for the best fans. I would like to thank you all for reading my blogs about racing for Team AnPost Chain Reaction Cycles!
