Wegmann: "This race doesn't like me and I don't like it either"

Gerolsteiner's Fabian Wegmann rode the Clasica San Sebastian Sunday for the fourth time, returning after a two-year break. He never had much luck with the race in the past, and things didn't go much better this year.

It started out well and went fine until the peloton came up against the protest by the ETA, which blocked the road on the Jaizkibel. "Disguised types with a chain jumped into the road to hold us up." Familiar with such actions from the Tour de France this year, for example, Wegmann and the other riders don't let themselves be beaten. "At times like this we riders aren't particularly squeamish and are willing to fight our way through," he noted on his website, www.fabianwegmann.de. "Singly and at intervals of about 30 seconds we went by the blockade, rider by rider, which meant, of course, that the field was totally strung out."

So Wegmann had to catch up with the field in front of him, and "I went all out." He made it to the group but "I overdid it in the chase. The natural result: I totally exploded on the next hill."

But Wegmann's bad luck day wasn't over yet. Not willing to give up entirely, he says, "I sprinted for 50th place and 100 meters before the finish line fell flat on my face. Suddenly a rider pulled over and rode directly into my handlebars. How embarrassing, I lay there with one tire off and had to carry my bike in my arms over the finish line.

"Conclusion: This race doesn't like me, and I don't like it either. But I will still come back again."