The second stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake was 188 km and was another relatively flat one. We did 60km out to a circuit and then did 3 laps on the 43km circuit. The plan was to put either myself, Michael, or Matthieu into the breakaway. From the start the three of us and Kyle followed moves. Matthieu got into a promising group of five but it was reeled back in. Then Michael went in a group of about 10 guys. We went hard up a hill and caught Mike's group. Then the pace slowed for a bit and I decided to go. This was about 30k into the stage. A Chinese rider joined me, but I honestly hoped we had a few more riders. We worked together well. Back in the field, Adria, the team in yellow, controlled the pace for most of the race. There were sprint points and time bonuses on the line each lap of the circuit. The Chinese rider took the first two sprints in front of me but after the second time through the line he sat up because he was toast. That left me on my own with about 80km still to race. I held on for 60 more km and took more time bonuses and sprint points. At this point Southeast, Kolss-BDC, and Amore e Vita were working to bring me back. The field caught me with about 20km left to go and I finished in the field with same time. Our team worked together and avoided some high speed crashes. In the finale Evan put together another top 10 finish. The time bonuses put me into 3rd place in the general classification after this stage. Tomorrow we have a 143km stage with an 85km climb.
Here is a link to my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/340166001
No comments:
Post a Comment