During Paris-Nice, one of the Saunier Duval riders, Francisco José Ventoso, asked me what races I would be competing in the coming month. I ran down the list and at the mention of Pays Basque he stopped me and said, “this year is hard, una puta madre, and my teammates all tell me the climbing is incredible.”

I am now two days into the race and I can attest to the fact that Francisco was right. The last two days have been hard, hard days of racing with nonstop climbing: yesterday we had nine categorized climbs and today eight. There is no time to chat in the bunch once the break is gone and the peloton settles down as we are either going uphill or downhill.

The courses are beautiful and the countryside a lush green and the Basque fans are dedicated and passionate for cycling. Along the roadside up and over each climb there are lines of spectators and the starts and finishes are heaving with people. The passion for the sport is also evident in the peloton as a high percentage of the Spaniards racing here are Basques (although most don’t consider themselves Spanish due their fervent separatist nationalism.)

Coincidentally, it has been Saunier Duval that has been ripping the race to pieces over the climbs and through the valleys. After the first two stages they are in firm control of the race with three of their riders in the first four. In general, the Spaniards always seem to fly on their own soil and so far they have been all over the front of the race and most of the top ten are Spanish.

We arrived here with a solid team built around Michael Rogers and Patrick Sinkewitz. Both riders are improving in form and are hoping to race well here. The rest of us will try go get in the breakaways, go for stages, and keep the leaders protected and in good position. I am racing with the hopes of improving my fitness so that I can perform well in the Ardennes Classics and then the Tour of Romandie.

The first two stages of the race were comparable to mountain stages in a Grand Tour with the first having over 3000 meters of climbing in 140 km and the second approximately 4500 in 190 km. The entire stage race has a total of 39 categorized climbs—there are actually more as we do go over hills that aren’t in the mountains classification. Each day I have burned approximately 4000 kilojoules—less the first stage, a little more on the second. Most of the climbs we go over we are averaging between 360-430 watts with accelerations over 500. Towards the end of the stage when the peloton splits the accelerations are repeatedly over 500 and the average slightly higher.

The weather has been unusually sunny and warm—Pays Basque is known as a race where it rains for nearly every kilometer and often snows—and yesterday we all managed to get sun burns on our white spring skin. The coming stages are still hard but not as hard as the first two—it is evident which riders have a chance at winning the overall classification and the deciding stage will likely be the time trial this coming Saturday_-which is rumored to have a hill in it that requires a 25 tooth sprocket to ascend.