suntour stage 1
stage one kicked off with a hard stage, with 2 catergorised climbs in the first 30km, a cat 3 followed by a cat 2.
guddy fired off into the opening break which was perfect for us, so we got to sit back a bit and surf a few moves without expending too much power. it was windy as hell so we still had to be attentive.
the break went out to over 2 min and we hit the first climb, which we took really easy and i got over the top the easiest i ever have in a tour, which lulled me into a big false sense of security, as i got illusions over grandure and thought i would make it over the 2nd cat climb which was about 7km long. HAH
we hit the bottom of the climb and i knew i was in the shit. i was already in the 23 and was slogging my guts out big time, safe to say after about 2km of holding on for dear life the bunch blew to bits. i got into a pretty decent size group after that, and slogged all the way to the top. it was the hardest 2nd cat climb ive ever done, it was super steep and went on for ages, the race was split to bits and i hit the top and we still had 120km to go!!!!
down the other side the laughing bus i was in picked up more victims of the wind and heat, and we ended up with about 30 people in the group. it was actually an easy stage after we all got dropped, i just had to be smart and watch the wind, even though we werent going to hard, it still sucked in a big group to be caught down the back when the wind changed from one side of the road to the other, and we got about 2km of straight tail wind the whole day-NOT FUN!!!
guddy got picked up by the big boys over the other side of the climb, and from what he said it went ballistic in the wind until 11 got away in a big section of cross wind. he followed 7 attacks, and as you know it the 8th went and that was that, the big gc move went and took about 10 mins and the winner of the race would come from that group. felt pretty stink for him-but there wasnt alot us fat trackies could do with a big climb like that at the start, it was pretty much survival for us from the start.
we finished the day about 20min down but way inside the time cut so lived to fight another day.
our sponsors this year mitchelton wines were absolutley outstanding-we went for a big dinner and cocktail party that night at their winery and got shown round, me, guddy, stuart o’grady and trent lowe got called up on stage for a few questions infront of the crowd, and for those of you who havnt seen stuey in person-he’s bloody TINY.
i actually couldnt believe it, the guy had just won paris-roubaix this year, i honestly thought he was way bigger, but there is absolutely nothing to him at all. sigh, maybe its time to get back on the diet again
one big excitement after the stage was a dirty big black snake slithered straight past our front door when we were getting a massage. bloody aussie wildlife, doors were locked down after that episode thats for sure
guddy fired off into the opening break which was perfect for us, so we got to sit back a bit and surf a few moves without expending too much power. it was windy as hell so we still had to be attentive.
the break went out to over 2 min and we hit the first climb, which we took really easy and i got over the top the easiest i ever have in a tour, which lulled me into a big false sense of security, as i got illusions over grandure and thought i would make it over the 2nd cat climb which was about 7km long. HAH
we hit the bottom of the climb and i knew i was in the shit. i was already in the 23 and was slogging my guts out big time, safe to say after about 2km of holding on for dear life the bunch blew to bits. i got into a pretty decent size group after that, and slogged all the way to the top. it was the hardest 2nd cat climb ive ever done, it was super steep and went on for ages, the race was split to bits and i hit the top and we still had 120km to go!!!!
down the other side the laughing bus i was in picked up more victims of the wind and heat, and we ended up with about 30 people in the group. it was actually an easy stage after we all got dropped, i just had to be smart and watch the wind, even though we werent going to hard, it still sucked in a big group to be caught down the back when the wind changed from one side of the road to the other, and we got about 2km of straight tail wind the whole day-NOT FUN!!!
guddy got picked up by the big boys over the other side of the climb, and from what he said it went ballistic in the wind until 11 got away in a big section of cross wind. he followed 7 attacks, and as you know it the 8th went and that was that, the big gc move went and took about 10 mins and the winner of the race would come from that group. felt pretty stink for him-but there wasnt alot us fat trackies could do with a big climb like that at the start, it was pretty much survival for us from the start.
we finished the day about 20min down but way inside the time cut so lived to fight another day.
our sponsors this year mitchelton wines were absolutley outstanding-we went for a big dinner and cocktail party that night at their winery and got shown round, me, guddy, stuart o’grady and trent lowe got called up on stage for a few questions infront of the crowd, and for those of you who havnt seen stuey in person-he’s bloody TINY.
i actually couldnt believe it, the guy had just won paris-roubaix this year, i honestly thought he was way bigger, but there is absolutely nothing to him at all. sigh, maybe its time to get back on the diet again
one big excitement after the stage was a dirty big black snake slithered straight past our front door when we were getting a massage. bloody aussie wildlife, doors were locked down after that episode thats for sure
Posted by in 11:21:43
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