Today was the tough queen stage, 70 miles with a mountain-top finish (check the profile below), with the last 1 km hitting 20%!! Huge crowds out cheering, chalked messages on the road - a great setting for the queen stage.
Another awesome day for the ladies, as Lisa won the stage and significantly increased her GC lead, and Amanda finished 4th and moved into 5th place on GC with the podium in sight! Way to represent the team!
Mike and I (and John V) did not fare quite so well. Three guys attacked right after the neutral roll-out, from three of the leading teams, and stayed away to the end, and also ended the GC race as the top 3 positions are now gone. Mike and I were near the front when they went, looked at each other and thought "It is way to early, the GC leader and 2nd on GC are not in the break and they do not seem concerned, ..." and neither of us tried to bridge. Only a couple guys were interested in trying to bring back the break, and with 30+ guys sitting on, the rest of the race was pretty much tempo until the final set of climbs. Once on the climbs the field pretty shattered, and toward the top "paperboy" climbing seemed to be the norm for many of the guys! At the finish, I ended up 10th, Mike 15th, and John 20th.
Post-race beers never tasted so good! And you can see Mike in the pic below passed out on this woman's table (note the beer in the arm of his chair) as she is trying to revive him!
Mike and I (and John V) did not fare quite so well. Three guys attacked right after the neutral roll-out, from three of the leading teams, and stayed away to the end, and also ended the GC race as the top 3 positions are now gone. Mike and I were near the front when they went, looked at each other and thought "It is way to early, the GC leader and 2nd on GC are not in the break and they do not seem concerned, ..." and neither of us tried to bridge. Only a couple guys were interested in trying to bring back the break, and with 30+ guys sitting on, the rest of the race was pretty much tempo until the final set of climbs. Once on the climbs the field pretty shattered, and toward the top "paperboy" climbing seemed to be the norm for many of the guys! At the finish, I ended up 10th, Mike 15th, and John 20th.
Post-race beers never tasted so good! And you can see Mike in the pic below passed out on this woman's table (note the beer in the arm of his chair) as she is trying to revive him!
passed out, beer in the chair sound perfect!
ReplyDeletenice work girls...and guys!