Stage 4 of the tour de Taiwan for 2012 is now in the history books and yet another Aussie, jonathon cantwell of the saxobank team was a hectic sprint. Again on "paper" the stage looked hard with 2 major climbs, one of which supposedly up to the line. The bunch has learnt how to accurately read the race book now so the general consensus was that it would be a bunch sprint. With the knowledge of this I had the same plan as yesterday, keep my little Malaysian pocket rocket Adiq ottman up the front and out of trouble and when the opportunity presented itself in the final km's hit out as hard as possible and try and catch the sprinters napping. This opportunity presented itself with about 1pm to go and off I went, again o got the gap and again for a brief moment I thought I had enough of a advantage, then Alexander serov of the Russian national team had followed my attack and blew past me in the customary Rd bike pursuiting style only track dudes posses and once again like anthony giacoppo 24hrs before went by that quick that I lost my helmet and sunnies!! I desperately tried to get his wheel and try for one final sprint and for 500m which felt like and eternity I dangled 5m behind him and 10m in front of the bunch before the sprinters ripped passed with about 100m to go. For our troubles serov rolled across the line in 3rd and myself 9th so close again but no cigar. Guess no other option but to try again tomorrow!! The racing sure is different but it is certainly very enjoyable as there is always action. Certainly no time to get bored.
Looking forward to yet more of the unknown tomorrow
Cjw
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