hi there,

well today the race was electric.. so many people, so much pressure within the peleton and i think the riders put on a real show for the public in the finale.. radioshack-nissan-trek played a massive role in the last 40kms of the race today, and it was great to be apart of it.

everyone knew that the race would only really begin when we hit the base of willunga climb for the first time.. but it wasn’t all easy up to that point. you could feel the pressure, it was unreal. the wind put everyone on the edge of their seats and you had to always be ready incase a team went hard in the side wind sections of the race..

as it turned out, all the stress and nervousness was for nothing, although there was a large number of riders out the back after the side tail wind section.. come the base of the climb the first time it was a full peleton ready to rip the race apart. there was a nasty crash just before it with a uniSA rider. he hit the deck hard, face first. man it looked bad so i hope he was ok. what this did though was clear the way for me to get right to the front before the base of the climb, and thats where i stayed..

being heavier than the climbers its always going to be hard to get up the top of the climb in the position we were told we HAD to be.. but i along with my whole team were there.. which was unreal seeing we have 3 climbers here, and 4 guys that go ok on climbs, but aren’t mountain goats.. i actually felt super on the climb and in the meeting this morning the plan was to have everyone get over it, then we go to work..

i think there was 40 guys over the top and it was really windy up there. with no descent it was hard to recover, even harder with the plan now ready to go ahead. the goal was simple. have numbers. then put the whole of the front group into the gutter with only our team getting shelter.. so off we went, and slowly one by one the front group went from 40 odd, right down to 20. having 6 in the front group of 20 was pretty unreal. we seen yesterday that the team was strong, but this was just confirmation that we are all at a good level so early in the year.

i cant even describe the feeling of going uphill full gas, to then not have a downhill to recover! we had 7km of flat and crosswinds before any freewheeling was to begin. by that stage the field was in shreds, and the plan was going 100% to what we talked about..

jens was flying.. jesse was too.. i was good but not great, but after the downhill i felt super.. i just needed that bit of recovery to get back into the groove of things.. our number 1 was so far back at one stage i had to go back and get him.. i then brought him back up to the front, and started working again.. but he is so small and too nice, so let other riders muscle him out of that position.. generally, when your team is on the front your leader gets the first free wheel to stay out of the wind.. but when its cross winds its dog eat dog and you have to really be aggressive to stay near the front.. before i knew it, it was hard in the gutter again and i looked back and tiago was really struggling.. again at the back. grrrrrrrrrr…. so off i went again. brought him back up just before the base of the climb and then he and our other 2 climbers went to work..

tiago was 3rd today.. which is a great result.. he is here on no racing, unlike most of the aussies.. valverde won, in his first race back for 2 years after serving a doping ban…. he has trained full gas for 2 years though so he was always going to be one to watch.. plus the fact that before he was suspended he was the number 1 guy in the world for many years in a row..

after we placed our guys in the right position myself, jens and jesse swung off… and cruised up the climb taking in all the atmosphere.. it was unreal.. and had a real tdf feel to it.. it was dangerous actually, but you just feed off it and it makes you ride harder.. there was so much support for us though, so many kiwis out there which was so cool to hear..

right thats enough from me… heres hoping half the peleton is out on the booze tonight so we get a easy stage tomorrow.. but i doubt it.. its going to be fast and we will look after tiago to conserve his 3rd overall.. and we will try and get benatti up for the win in the final stage..

then its home time and i cant wait.. it will be a short stop though, so ill be spending as much time with my partner, claire, and my wee boy moses.. and of course ill be training my ass off to capitalize on this block of racing so that my form continues to rise..

will update tomorrow.. again thanks for the support. you guys rock….

see you
roly