Today’s stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake was a tough one. It was 145km long. We climbed for about the first 85km. The goal was to put either myself, Mike, Mattieu, or Kyle into the break. The racing started off aggressive from the gun. After about 10 or 15 km into the stage we had Mattieu and Evan in the break off the front. This put us in a good position. After about 65km Thomas went of the front of our group and at about 70 km in I brought Kyle to the front. Almost instantaneously a few guys went, and he followed them. I knew I couldn’t follow the best guys today, so I decided to conserve energy for later in the week. Up in the break Evan had some bad luck breaking his shifter cable. With about 1km to the top of the climb Evan came to me and Michael’s group. So we had Kyle, Thomas, and Mattieu off the front. Mattieu’s break almost stuck it to the end. Thomas’ group caught Mattieu’s group in the final kilometer. That put Thomas in 6th place in the overall and Mattieu is now in 10th. I rode in in the grupetto, but it was crazy because with about 15 km to go the group started making echelons in the crosswinds. I am not sure why our group did this. I ended up rolling in around 8 minutes down. It is really difficult to breathe up here at over 9000 feet. Just laying in bed is difficult. Climbing the stairs in the hotel is terrible. We will be this high for a few days. Tomorrow’s stage is rolling and 185km long. We will be next to Qinghai Lake for all of it, so there should be some bad wind. It is also supposed to be 55 degrees and raining.
Here is a link to my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/340795687https://www.strava.com/activities/340795687
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