I tried to do everything like I did back in the track days but I guess that I?m just not the same rider now as I once was. I had the idea to ride it like I used to ride a kilo on the track?but I don't think that it was really the best tactic. Good old hindsight...

I started ok but over the final couple of hundred metres I just lost all strength and crossed the line feeling like I was doing 30km/hr. I just started out way too hard. I shouldn?t have started at maximum. In the old days I?d start at max and just try and hang on. The extra metres and the headwind made that a bad tactic tonight.

This coupled with the fact that I?ve done very little power work leading up to the Giro ? actually none ? made tonight?s prologue tougher than I would?ve normally found it. After my glut injury, training has just been about getting the mid-range fitness back. Any top-end training has been put on the backburner. That lack of top-end fitness hurt me tonight?

Anyway?.onward and hopefully upwards? Tomorrow is a really hard uphill technical finish. 400m of the last km are uphill with an average gradient of a little over 12%. With Fassa Bortolo looking dangerously strong, it?s going to be a hard finish, especially with the technical corners in the last kilo, of which there are three. I?ve got a plan and I?m determined to stick to it. Putting it simply, I'm just planning to get in amongst it.