Stage 7 of the Tour of Qinghai Lake was a tough one. It was 190 km long and we started out with a big climb. We put Kyle into the breakaway, so he was able to crest the climb ahead of Thomas. Mattieu and Michael crested the climb with Thomas and worked to get him back into the front group. I crested the climb 30 seconds behind them. At the top of the climb we were at 3500 meters, and we descended a little bit but climbed mountains and were never below 9000 feet for a lot of the stage. On the next climb I saw that Mike and Mattieu were about 2 minutes ahead of me, so I gave up the idea of catching them again. I rolled with a group that was always going pretty hard. The views were spectacular today. My group joined up with a group that included Nick and Mattieu with about 70km to go. Eventually with about 50km to go we started descending for almost the rest of the stage. The descent was very pretty. There was a river and there were rocks on all sides of us. Eventually the rocks turned to red rocks, and it was just unbelievable. China is a really beautiful place. Thomas rolled into the finish in the main bunch. A Lampre rider stayed away solo for the stage win. A super tough day is in the books. Tomorrow we have a 126km stage with less climbing than today, and we only top out at about 2400 meters instead of 3500 meters.
Here is a link to my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/343518782
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