Stage 4 TDU

On paper today appeared to be the easiest stage of the week. Another opportunity for a big bunch gallop and sprinters to shine. Alas it was not to be and today turned out to be the hardest day of the race so far. After a difficult day yesterday with the hard finish circuits and simmering heat 41degrees!! everybody simply expected the usual, small break to go early and the big sprint teams reeling them in in the final km. The opposite occured, the entire peleton basically decided to attack, at one point 25km into the stage matt goss the race leader had chased a group of 20 riders down personally as all his teammates were gathering there breath after the barrage of attacks previously. The race basically stayed single file for the first 40km at which point a group and ultimately successfull 5 riders got away, once it looked like the move may stick and had about 10 seconds i attacked with Mathew Haymen of team sky to bridge accross, riding behind matt was like chasing a motor bike, the power that man is simply incredible, we got within touching distance of the group but unfortunately for us the lotto team had decided they did not want us in the break and had the bunch wound up chasing us down, unfortunately a few seconds was as close as we got to the break and once the lotto train reeled matt and i in the 5 riders disappeared not to be seen again until the presentations at the finish. Matt Goss's HTC team set there tempo but it was not hard enough and when other sprinters teams realised what the situation was with 20km to go they pitched into help but it was too late. One of the most talented riders the world of cycling will ever see Cameron Meyer had won the dash to lne 20sec ahead of the desperately chaseing peleton and he now leads the tour. I finished safely in the wind smashed main group behing Meyer i little tired i must say.

Tommorrow we hit the queens stage with 2 laps over old willunga hill so i am hoping for a day similar to today, plenty of excitment not only for the spectators but also for us in the bunch but i hope this time i can be a bit more toward the pointy end.

Facts and figures for the day, sorry but srm power died so limited data

Time 2hrs 57min
Distance 125km
Speed 42kmph
Av Heart rate 143
Max Heart Rate 188

cjw