Chris Winn: Ramblings From The Road

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08 October 2011

Tour Of Tasmania: Stage Eight and Nine


As I type the Tour of Beijing is one TV so forgive me for any bad grammar or spelling mistakes.  Dual focus here.  This mornings stage started right outside our hotel window which was perfect, having a little more time to sleep in and recovery before another punishing day.  This race has been a tough one.  The crit circuit was one again fun filled, with a tight snaking course around the coastline.  At only 800m around and a total of 30 laps it was the shortest stage at just over 30min.  With a back row start I was in the box early trying to move up as the pace was on, but once things settled down I was really feeling the effort from yesterday.  And the days before that too!  The race finished on a sour note with Bernie getting taken down at over 60km/h just after the finish line in a mad sprint.  Coming past seeing your team mate in pieces on the ground is a terrible sight and although there are some crazy photos from the incident I don't really want to post them here.  Also we lost the yellow jersey to Haas and his superb sprinting skills.

The afternoon stage was far more difficult than I gave it credit for.  Up and down all day and still with the GC battle so tight it was attack after attack.  Once again the climbs shattered the field and I was lucky enough to scrape into the pointy end again.  Barely.  It came down to another mass sprint in which the Russian's rolled us for their second stage win of the race.

Tomorrow is the final stage and should be fireworks right until the end.  Cam is sitting in third just 14 seconds back and Bernie only 37 so it's not over until it's over!  Wish us luck!

 View from the hotel balcony!  Boom!

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