American pro Chad Haga of Team Sunweb is a four-year veteran at the World Tour level, an avid pianist, and a college graduate with a degree in engineering. Follow along as he reports from the 2017 Vuelta a Espana. And read our bonus interview with Chad from the Vuelta's first rest day.

I blinked, and suddenly the weekend is already upon us, with only a handful of "steepy hillies" in between us and the rest day. It's been a wild week (or four stages if you want to pick nits, but time is relative inside a grand tour).

To start, we endured two days of pouring rain in a region that never gets any rain. My former teammate, Koen de Kort, put it well when he said, "What are the odds it rains TODAY? I mean, look around, it's nothing but dirt!"

In fact, a spectator at the start line -- under whose umbrella I'd been seeking shelter -- said that it had been months since the last rainfall.

And do you know how we go around corners in the rain, in a place where it never rains? Very, very carefully! And then we sprint out of the corner, because we still attack like maniacs even when we can barely see the wheel ahead of us. The poor guys at the back just sprint from corner to corner as the field strings out until it eventually splits. It's a delicate dance for the GC riders (and their shepherds!) to stay close enough to the front that we aren't sprinting all the time or caught behind splits, but not so close that we're in the chaos and wasting energy.

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In hindsight, I did enjoy myself those days. It was almost nice to remember what it feels like to be cold again, and I enjoyed great legs without heat sapping my energy away. I've settled well into my shepherding role, my connection with Wilco getting a bit stronger each day as we navigate the bunch in sync. On his side, he's rewarded our efforts and climbed on up the GC ladder just as I knew he could. Wilco can do just fine on the short punchy climbs, but the mountains are his terrain.

Our team morale took a hit yesterday, however, when the Dutch Lennard (we also have a German Lennard) awoke ill. He'd killed himself in the breakaway as Wilco's relay-man in the mountains, and perhaps ingested something nasty from the rainy roads, a brutal combination after two weeks of racing. His tank was empty and he was immediately dropped while the bunch attacked itself silly on the punchy coastal roads. And then we were seven.

The stage had been uneventful, which should have been the first warning sign. You can never be too relaxed when Contador is in the peloton, especially at his final race. He may be down, but you can never count him out, and the chaos-monger did his thing on the final climb. Wilco finished in the GC group, ready for the bigger battles to come.

Today was the hottest day of the Vuelta so far, and I and my Aussie roommate, Chris, celebrated it by breaking out our summer jerseys. We've been saving them for a properly hot day, having experienced a few of them at our respective homes growing up. The sunscreening process is a bit more involved with these jerseys, though, since you could see through them in the dark.

After a moderately stressful day (we can never relax when the whole Quickstep team is at the front on a day with crosswinds), we positioned Wilco and Soren going into the tricky sprint finish, where Soren sprinted to an impressive third place after attacking in the final kilometers, and Wilco jumped another place thanks to splits in the field. The race for the podium is turning into a real battle!

Chris Hamilton, one of our grand tour debutants, had an epiphany today: "I've thought the past few days that I was just on a bad day, but today I realized that's just how every day feels now."

Yes, Grasshopper, now you are learning.

Our interview with Chad Haga occurred on the Vuelta's first rest day, following the news that Cannondale-Drapac had lost a major sponsor and Team Sunweb had sent Warren Barguil home.

FloCycling: You celebrated your 29th birthday at this Vuelta. Does everyone get excited when someone on the team has a birthday during a race, because they know there is going to be cake?

Chad Haga: Yes, yes I'm quickly becoming one of the old guys. Multiple people on the team said, "Hope you get something nice for dessert tonight." That's the big thing, "What's dessert going to be?" So, I was treated to a very nice raspberry and whip cream filled pasty with a 29 on top.

FloCycling: How has it been for you, now a veteran, with five grand tours under your belt, moving into more of a mentorship roll, or a "shepherd" as you like to call your job on the team?

Chad Haga: It's something I'm having to adapt to, because I'm not the most outgoing person. I'm happy to talk when talked to, but I don't generally proffer advice, but now I'm realizing I actually do have a lot of experience, and these younger guys can really benefit from that. So it's trying to stay on top of the little things that add up here. We have five guys here who've never had a rest day before, so they don't know what it's going to feel like starting the second week of a grand tour following a rest day.

FloCycling: What do you do during a rest day in order to start the next stage not feeling like a slug?

Chad Haga: The two big things are doing a bit of intensity, and eating enough. At least for me, my legs shut down if I do absolutely nothing. I did a little two-minute effort on a hill during our ride today. So, just enough to keep them going without making yourself more tired. A lot of guys underestimate how high our metabolism is after nine days full gas. And, if you're hungry, it's a sign that your body needs more food. Salad won't do it. You've got to have carbs in the system for tomorrow. Because everyone else will, for sure.

FloCycling: When you get news like we got this past week, with Cannondale-Drapac losing a major sponsor, how does that affect the mood of the peloton? What are the conversations in the field?

Chad Haga: It's unfortunately common to hear such news, but it's always sad when you hear news like that. The peloton is one big community, and we all know at least someone on every team who we would call a friend, so you hate for guys to be in that position, and you wonder, am I that close to the edge as well? But it was encouraging to see how they took the news, and took charge of the race on Sunday -- it felt like a little bit in defiance, just to show they're not going to be cowed by it.

FloCycling: And when you see them on the front like that, from your standpoint, watching them put it all out there, are you sort of rooting for them?

Chad Haga: A little bit, yeah. They're sort of seen as an underdog team, they're certainly not the heavy favorites. Talk about Woodsy battling Froome up that final climb, I really like Woodsy, and would've loved to see him get the win on that final climb. They went all in, and it's encouraging to see. I'm definitely cheering for them a little bit.

FloCycling: Sunweb has had a little bit of turmoil on its own team, sending home Warren Barguil, who won the mountains jersey at the Tour de France. That was a little surreal from my perspective, that Sunweb was sending one of its best riders home for -- and I'm summarizing here -- not obeying team orders. How did that affect you and the rest of the guys on the team who're still racing the Vuelta?

Chad Haga: We came here with the goal of going for the general classification for Wilco, and regarding Warren, the team management made its decision. So, for me, it changes nothing and we're still supporting Wilco as much as we can everyday. We took it in stride, and kept racing.

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