So today was the final day... our last chance to win the tour. Our race was one of the 1st off (at 8:45) and so we woke up early to have our last buffet breakfast (god i'm going to miss it lol) and rolled over to the course. Today was different to all the other days, it was our last chance. somehow we had to pull 12sec back on a fast flat circuit. Our only hope was that the leader would do what she did the last couple of days and chase everything that moved.
So we warmed up, wasn't feeling half bad and we all rolled up to the line, got our introductions and the race started. From the gun our team attacked but the leader didn't chase..so mickey was stranded out in front for a while.. then when she got caught, another budget rider went. the leader still didn't chase. 'Dammit' i thought... why today did she decide not to chase? we went in with a plan and we were going to have to change it drastically in order to try and get me on a solo breakaway for the win. She was sticking to my wheel like glue (good move on her behalf, hey all she had to do was sit with me for the whole race and she had it in the bag!) and so i maneouvered my way around the bunch to try and drop her and it worked several times but she would mow me down. There were intermediate sprints for points and i won the first couple which locked me in the green jersey. so i didn't have to worry about the rest of the sprints for the rest of the crit which was good! Coming into the last couple of laps Rick shouted out 'follow the plan' and i was like great.. have to try and breakaway in the botttom corner. So i tried on the final lap and was out in front but had a sprinter on my wheel (omg.. her legs were huge!!!) and so when i attacked (about 400m out) she was on my wheel and steped out at about 50m to go and pipped me on the line... she wasn't even in contention for GC!! all i needed was the win (10sec bonus ) and to beat the leader by 2sec!!! I was about to grab that girl's jersey and pull her back...i was massively cut. really pissed off.
I really wanted to win the tour for the girls.. they worked so hard for me. They all had an opportunity to win the bike race but didn't go through with it because they were woring for me. Was pretty dissapointed. so left the tour with a 5th in the TT, 1st in the RR and the Circuit race and a 2nd in the Crit and 2nd in GC and won the points jersey.. so atleast I took home the green jersey..
In the boys race, Thommo took home to overall GC and Pete got 3rd in the stage.
After the crit, we cruised home and got all our stuff organised ready for the mammoth 6hr car ride home. We said bye to the Hincapie crew but i missed out on saying bye to the Mesa boys because i was too busy trying to pick up prize money... (picked up around about 475 for the whole weekend). It was sad saying bye to them because the people were so cool.. some of the nicest people i've ever met!
The car ride home didn't take as long as i thought it would.. it wasn't actually too bad! Had a good chat to Rick again and learnt some pretty cool stuff.
Was pretty stuffed when we got home, didn't sleep at all on the way back cause was trying to keep Rick entertained lol
So yeh, that was the end of our day... pretty long one but wasn't too shabby.. was dissapointed about coming so close to winning the tour, would have been a great one to have on the resume...
Tomorrow, we are hitting the shops.. can't wait! Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie and Fitch... sounds sweet
xo
No comments:
Post a Comment