A very quick update this evening from Czech Republic. Time is on the tight side, it’s dinner time in 30 minutes and I can’t seem to eat enough at the moment.
Another great day in the saddle for the Rapha Team with a few thrills and spills in the mix. We started off as the 5th placed team out of 29 and the route today was three large laps, with a long climb and a trip down the motorway followed by two and a half smaller laps.
Things started well when our warm up took us in to Germany and we got water bombed by some kids hanging out of the window of a house. It would have been nice to have got a little wetter as the weather was 33˚C at 10am! Things got worse when the whole team got boxed in at the start, then again when Rachel was caught behind a rider coming down in front of her less than 500m into the race and then again when we got stopped at a level crossing a few more kilometres in. For a while the race passed without too much incident. The climbs were fun and I was at the front for them but with the long sweeping descent afterwards there was ample time for riders to catch back on. Then, about 50k in a few girls went down on the level crossing. I was just behind and slammed on my brakes, stopped and managed to get round them, Corrine picked a line through them but Alli had a little less luck and after getting round the girls was clipped by someone else and promptly got flung into a ditch. She’s a little grazed with sore ribs but it seems the grass broke her fall even though she had to use her hands to clamber out of said ditch.
Getting back into the bunch was no easy task and it was the bottom of the climb before I got back on, even later for Alli. The bunch then continued on as before, a much bigger peleton than yesterday and it was 20km out from the finish that the next excitement happened. By this time I was absolutely gasping for more water as I’d missed the feed zone whenever we’d been passed it before. Then suddenly I spotted Cath Williamson’s Mum, Brenda (Who was helping to support us) but I was on the left side of the bunch and she was on the right hand side. Shouting out ‘There’s Cath’s Mum!’ in delight I powered past the bunch to make sure I could get to Cath’s Dad Tony who was just up the road. Grabbing a bottle and throwing away my empty I looked behind me to see I had a pretty sizeable gap and a quick look down at my bike computer showed we had 20k to go. The finish line was downhill and there were no sizeable climbs in the remainder of the route to break the peleton up so with nothing to loose and everything to gain being only 9 seconds down on GC I decided to put my head down and make an attack. I thought someone would come with me but no one appeared and after a while I was told by a following motorcyclist I had a 40 second gap! Being only 9 seconds down on GC this could have been a very handy 40 seconds. I powered as hard as I could up a long drag into the wind but it seems after a while, once they realised that I was a threat, Norris Cycling (whose rider Trixi Worrack is leading on GC) put the hammer down to catch me. Apparently the whole peleton was strung out in a single line and try as I might I just couldn’t stay away. I was away for a while but unfortunately caught with about 8km to go.
After all my effort I was determined not to get spat out the back and finished in the bunch which came down to a sprint as I suspected. I didn’t lose any time but didn’t gain that 40 seconds either. The Rapha team are still doing brilliantly with three of us finishing in the sprint and two just behind plus I've now moved up into 20th place on GC.
The dinner bell has gone in our boarding school and I must be fed. It’s a 7.30am start tomorrow with the Polish Police arriving to escort us to Poland where the time trial is being held. An early night tonight that’s for sure!
No comments:
Post a Comment