Today off course was anzac day so was a special feeling to be an aussie in turkey for such a historic day. It is impossible not to be moved by the bravery of our troops in all the world wars allowing us to enjoy the freedom and opportunities we have today. In honor of this i was determined to be appart of the action today, it was a very hard start with wind, rough rds and roleing hills so i saw the opportunity to enter the breakaway. Unfortunately many had the same idea and after 6 of us enjoyed a 1min lead we were joint by another 10 and 16 of us set of after about 30km of racing. With a few major sprint teams not represented in the break they were chasing us hard and we were going full tilt to try and break them, we did not and eventually a group of around 50 formed with all the top sprinters and the remainder of the peleton splitered over 4 groups trailing behind. With lotto, lampre, and garmin at full force in the break they continued to drive the pace, i was on my limit simply trying to hold the wheel let along help force the pace. It remained like this for the next 50km and although at one point our lead got out to 1min a furious and tenacious chase by the spider tech team from canada and by all reports pretty much single handedly driven by svein tuft brought our group back and at that point the group now contained about 80 dudes and a cease fire was called allowing the remaining 3 groups splintered back down the rd to also rejoin and we had 100km of easy roleing to prepare for a group sprint. Certainly had tuft not pulled with the stregth of about 30men our group would have been long gone but he is a seriously incredibly strong dude and i hope his team brought him a beer or two tonight for that effort to neautralise the split. For the 1st 1hr and 30min of racing i had averaged 180heart rate and with at least half of that not doing any work on the front it certainly gave me a good reminder of how to suffer in races after 4 weeks training at home, i was in a serious amount of discomfort!! Anyway from my perspective that was actually the exciting part of the race and it actually had no impact on the final outcome of the day although i did find it a little easier to stay at the front and out of trouble in the sprint so may have indicated that the bunch was carrying a bit of fatique from the first 2hrs racing. It was certainly very contrasting half's of the race with the being unbelievable painfull and the second a gentle role along the turkish coastline which was fortunate for me as it gave me the opportunity to re charge my batteries for the 4 difficult days ahead.
I am really enjoying racing here as the roads are quite dead and slow and rough in places and it reminds me of training in tassy. I was explaining to my massure that to achieve the same speed in training in tasmania as you do in italy you have to put our atleast 10% more power which is what make tassie perhaps the best place in the world to train. So for me i feel pretty comfortable litterly bumping along the turkish coastline.
So that was anzac day for me in turkey, i did have a crack at getting involved in the stage but was not to be for me today, certainly along with all the other aussie's in the bunch today we were pretty proud to be here and remember those brave men that gave there life's for our great country, Absolute hero's.
Cjw
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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