I had been looking forward to this tour for a we while knowing that the conditions up that way should suit me fairly well.
On the Tuesday before a few of us riders voyaged for a Criteruim. I was riding a wave of hard training (with old team mate Sam Lindsay)
followed by rest and I felt really strong. I kept moving forward with break aways all race and so never missed 1 single good move all day..
Coming into the last lap it had all bunched up a little bit but I was still confident in the sprint.
But then came a front deralier problem with just 150m to go (dismount the bike even).....Gutted
After this I switched focus and rested a bit for heading up north:
Stage 1
Rain and a good amount of wind 155km
My type of race, unfortunately I crashed inside the first 5km and that stressed out my whole race. After a difficult chase i was back in the main group. but just after this another cross wind and someone drops the wheel. I used myself to chase for the team but this turned out to be a bad idea because it just burned me down for the tough finishing circuit. (put this stage out of the mind)
Stage 2
The mountains day. Luckily for most it was controlled up front by Etupes and Efc Quickstep, meaning it was a steady tempo for all but the last 30km on the finishing circuit which was brutal. The lap was only 9km but it had some nasty climbs and super fast descents so no reco time......(finished just behind front group)
Day 3 lead to a TTT
We were told to keep us all together. This meant pretty steady on the climbs and then the strong guys drive on the flats. I punctured on a decent with 5km to go so after trying to get back in just sat up.
Stage 4
Probably my biggest result in France so far, took 3rd on the 97km afternoon stage.
It all kicked off from the very start, really fast first 10km and then i jumped across solo to the break of 8.
After this with all the big teams represented it was all on. Once the gap got out to over 1.30 guys were already trying to hide at the back......(not like typical NZ racing where breakaways all lap 100%)
any way with 30km still to go the time gap started tumbling with a serious amount of guys not wanting to work. Attacks came and I was scrambling a we bit. But i just kept trying to stay really relaxed and not panic.
Coming into the last 7km the time gap was under 1min and we had just turned onto a road running adjacent to the beach front with a good amount of X wind (still there was a lot of foxing about). I just sat near the back pretty much in the gutter and moved with the attacks as the others tried to put each other in the gutter. Coming into the final 1000m it had all regrouped. With 300m to go there was a little road furniture that nearly caused a crash. I jumped from the back and took 3rd. Pretty happy but kind of think if i had been slightly better placed i could have had a better run at it.
Stage 5
145km more wind.
I was feeling a little under the weather so just sat back like i was told and didn't really have to put out to much energy apart from 1 section of coast line. Onto the finish circuit it was all on. I had a look for a good place to attack but there was a massive section on the lap with an insane head wind so i thought just to wait for the Sprint, I took 14th which gave me a top 10 in the bunch kick....
Cheers
KH
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| Chilled |
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| EFC Quick Step guy rolls the breakway... |
1 comment:
machine !
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