last 2 stages
well i thought the last 2 stages might actually hold something for me, but it just wasnt to be, the morning stage on the last day looked simple on paper, well it did if you read it wrong like i did. i though we only had to go over 2 catergorised climbs, and i made it over those ok, and we started going up another climb and i rolled up next to mark langlands, and said “hey, whats this, i thought that was it for climbs today?” he just laughed, and said, no we have 5 to go up today.
oh, shit, right. remove head from shoulders and lose the plot for half a minute. im not sure what it was but when i heard we had 3 more climbs to go over it just hurt me mentally. so i stayed in the bunch untill we hit this random piece of rough gravel that was about 4km long and the race started to blow to bits, i was making use of my size for once and shooting past everyone and heading up to the front group when i noticed the yellow jersey losing contact with the front group and falling behind rapidly, it took me about 10 seconds to compute everything (the rat fell asleep at the running wheel powering my brain) and realised with him going out the back, that the front group would really start hammering, and i needed to be there if i wanted to be part of the race, so went suicide on the last 2 corners on the gravel and made contact quite gassed, and wouldnt you know it, straight after that went into another catergorised climb. it was touch and go, and i made it over the top just 20 meters behind the group, and proceded to cook up a corner, which opened the gap up to 50 meters, then that was that, day over, and slid back to the 2nd group on the road over the last climb and rolled in.
the last stage looked good, 2 climbs which i made it over really easy as they were setting a cruisy tempo, and was waiting for the finishing circuits for a sprint finish, when going up a steep street, i broke my back wheel, and as soon as i did that i knew it was game over, i waited another 4min for a wheel, so i was last man on the road again, got going, was 3min behind the last vehicle on the road so chased for abotu 5km, made no inroads, and sat up and cruised onto the finishing circuits. pretty pissed off as it was a stage i had targeted at the beginning from the tour and i knew i had good legs, but shit happens i guess. was a bastard way to finish the whole thing but like the boys told me, better now than suntour or something for mechanicals, so that was the tour of new cale, all wrapped and done. i think it was a one off tour, as in ive done it, and wont be back, all going to plan and i make the olympic team ill be somewhere drinking cold beers having a holiday instead of dragging my sorry behind up every hill new cale has to offer me haha
