Woke up to an over cast dodgy looking morning which ended up being quite nice for the 1st stage of this years tour. Depart was at 11.10am so leaving the hotel at 9.00am was an early start as it was 50min drive to the start. The first hour was crazy fast and it didn't help getting a puncture 10km in. Yep another puncture to go with last Saturdays. Not to worry though. A nice quick change and on my way again. I got back in to the peloton with relitive ease and then it was onto the cross winds, i sat in the gutter holding a bloody high wattage for 4 or 5 minutes before the road turned to a head wind. Anyway all was going well, went through the feed station, got my musette with lunch in it and carried on my way. With 50km to go i was still strong and riding which was nice to have some sensations back again after a long time without them.
Nothing happened really except for my team mate crashing, he's alright and all was well.
35km to go and i got another puncture, just my luck. They say they come in 3's well theres 3 right there!
Anyway it happened at possibly the worst time it could happnen. Just as the screws were getting tightened ready to bring back the break away of the day. To cut a long story short, i couldn't get towed back to the peloton as there was another group just ahead which i got dropped off too. It contained 5 of my team mates too so together we got into the finish well inside time cut and 10minutes down on the winner.
That doesn't matter as it's all experience but i was good enough today to finish in the peloton today. But i will live to fight another day tomorrow!
The cross winds were the worst i've ever ridden in today. They had the bunch all over the place. One time long long ago, April 2006 during the junior worlds selection race i was in trouble of dropping out of contention on the 1st day. That day i visited a deep, dark place in a world of pain and ever since i have been too scared to hurt myself that badly again. Well today in the cross wind, I was well on the way to visiting that place again and thank god it was over before i had to go that deep!
Tomorrow brings 201km, which includes 3 cobbled climbs reaching 21%, for those whakatane people reading, Melville drive is 16%, so 21% cobbled is really something!
Until then.
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