Just north of Bilbao is the suburb of Getxo.  The start-finish was right on the water in front of a few beautiful old stone houses perched on the hill above and we then looped through a 16.5k urban circuit with one hard kick of around a K and a few small ups and downs.  After 5k of cruising the race started up and from that point never relaxed until we crossed the line for the 11th time 180k later; one of those great days where you just waited for the blood to start pouring out your ears before calling mercy.  Never happened unfortunately and despite some big splits of 30 and 40 riders that really felt like we’d be gone everything came back together for a field sprint.  I was pretty worked over coming into the finish but linked up with Pate and tried to get him in a decent spot to give the sprint a go.  Unfortunately, with about 700 to go, when I really needed to kick in order to get him around the bulge behind the leadout train the legs said no and the field promptly shut us down with a quick switch to the left.  Next time go on the right side…
After the finish we hit the showers, jumped in the cars and headed north into France and over to Toulouse.  We spent the night there enjoying all the Ibis had to offer, including a fantastic meal (I realized sitting there we were effectively going to the Euro version of a Super 8 hotel restaurant…mmmm), and are now heading up another few hours north to the start town of Paris-Corezze.  We start up tomorrow, race again the 3rd, then head east to Lyon for a few days to chill before the start of the Tour de l’Ain.