Monday, April 25, 2011

Tour de korea stage 7 8 9

After our rest day in Pyeong Chang (which is bidding to host the 2018 winter olympics) we woke up to 40 degrees and rain! Anyway the stage got shortened and ended up finishing on top of a climb. I was really cold and Im not usually much for long hill climb finishes so I tried hard at first but once i was out of the top 10 i just kept a steady pace and rolled in with some guys for 3rd. My team mates Yeon deok and Hyun gil did well. Hyun Gil dominated teh KOM at the tour de korea.
The next stage on paper didn't look to good for me but my teammate hyun gil told me that the hill was actually only 3km instead of the 5 that it looked like. So I became more confident. The race was under much better weather and I was feeling pretty good. The climb started and I just stayed with the biclo riders and followed wheels. I made it over the top with a group of about 10 and by the bottom there were 20 of us and we had caught the leaders. The situation was similar to stage 3 where most of the riders had been dropped on the climb but a group of 20 or so regrouped after the climb so I thought it would be another good day for an attack. I followed a few that didn't go anywhere and then when 2 biclo riders got a 50m gap i knew it was the winning break so i bridged across to them. We held a pretty good gap and rode the last 15km together. They were way stronger than i was and pretty much worked me over in the sprint but i was still happy with 3rd place and another trip to the podium.
The final stage was a flat 47km race through seoul with a narrow twisty final 3km into the olympic park. It was my last chance to win a stage and I thought it would end in a field sprint. I sat in the pack in the middle and moved into the top 10 with 5km to go. I rode the final 3km well and maintained my position but i couldn't move up in the sprint because i was gassed from biclo's lead out through the final. I ended up 5th which is still pretty good. My overall place was 19th but i wasn't really going for the overall after losing so much time on the first stage. The race was overall pretty good and im still satisfied even though i didnt' get my goal of a stage win. I placed 8th 5th 4th 3rd and 2nd and i really enjoyed the race which went through a lot of beatiful places.
Time to take a few days off my bike and then get ready for the criterium next week!

No comments: