Wednesday, April 20, 2011

stage 5 and 6

Stage 5 went ok but it could have gone better. The race was on a pretty nice course with 2 long gradual climbs and a 1km section of dirt road. As soon as the race started one of the biclo riders (the team made up of a former of olympian and 5 guys who are training to be pro bike racers that has been dominating the race) attacked. He managed to stay about 400m in front of the pack the whole race. I attempted to bridge to him 3 times once I got pretty close after attacking on the dirt road but unfortunatlely I didn't quite make it. He ended up winning the race by 3 seconds! The rest of us sprinted on a long straight up hill drag for the last 2km. It was a pretty tough sprint for me and I only ended up taking 8th. The top 10 get money each day so it was an ok result. I promised some of my co workers as well as the principal and vice principal that I would take them out to dinner for letting me have vacation for the race so I need to win a little bit of prize money! My teammates didn't fare as well getting caught behind a crash near the end and coming in near the back of the field.
Today was a big mountain stage with a 10km climb. I was feeling pretty good in the first parts of the race and when I saw a biclo rider attack i thought I would bridge up. I did and it turned out to be on the opening slopes of the climb. After bridging I kind of blew up and we were caught by the pack pretty soon after anyway resulting in me getting blown out the back of the group of about 40 riders or so. I caught my breath and managed to catch about 5 guys at the top. The descent was really fun and beatiful as the mountain pass went through Seobaeksan national park. Anyway I finished 35th but I wasn't really expecting to be a GC rider at this race anyway since i seem to completely blow up on any climb over 5km. Tomorrow is a rest day and then we have 2 more mountain days(with climbs that are basically exactly 5km) The final day is flat in Seoul and has a really twisty finish. Im gonna try my best to get the stage win there and make it over the mountains with the lead group the next few days.

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