Tour of Qinghai Lake Stage 6

Stage 6 of the Tour of Qinghai Lake was a 138 km stage where we once again climbed to over 12,000 feet in elevation. The plan was to have me go into the breakaway, and Matt helped get me into a move with a couple other guys. Then I went back into the field to recover and Thomas launched an attack that was the break of the day. This made the day easy for us in the field. We rode together and protected each other in case any splits happened in crosswinds, but that never happened. We got Kyle into position going into the climb, and he made it over in the main group. Thomas was still off the front. He almost won the stage, but was caught by Kyle’s group with 25 meters to go. So close to victory… The rest of us finished safely and are ready for tomorrow’s 190 km stage with a bunch of climbing.

Here is a link to my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/342848479

Tour of Qinghai Lake Stage 5

Stage 5 of the Tour of Qinghai Lake was a tough 133km stage that wrapped around Qinghai Lake, had a steep 6km climb coming about 80 km into the stage and descending from the top of the climb to the finish. The plan was to get two riders into the break to have people help Thomas on the climb and have the other riders protect Thomas and keep him out of the wind. From the start me, Kyle, Mattieu, and Olheiser went into moves. The pace was really fast with tailwinds, and Kolss was controlling the group super well. Finally Mattieu got into a move with two other guys. After this we helped keep Thomas out of the wind, and eventually a split happened in a crosswind. I was with Thomas when the split happened, but I tapped my brakes and that put me out of it. Luckily we had Mattieu up the road, and Kyle and Evan made the split with Thomas. After this point I stayed out of the wind in the second group while teams that missed out hammered. Up front Kyle and Thomas rode the climb in the yellow jersey group. Thomas finished the stage 2 minutes and 50 seconds back and is now 8th in GC. Tomorrow is a similar 138 km stage with a cat 1 climb, but we do not start next to Qinghai Lake, so crosswinds should be less and the climb is smaller than today. Also after tomorrow’s stage we will only be at 2200 meters. That should feel like sea level compared to the 2800 meters we are staying at now.

Here is a link to my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/342216306

Tour of Qinghai Lake Stage 4

Today’s stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake was a 185 km flat stage around Qinghai Lake. That meant that it was a super windy stage. The whole team rode near the front and helped protect each other for most of the stage. At about 120km into the stage the Park Hotel Valkenburg team lit it up in the cross winds. I could not follow the surge even though I was at the front. I pretty much got spit out of the peloton because I just can’t breathe up here at 10,000 feet. However, the team was able to get Thomas in the front group yet again. He still remains in 6th place overall 10 seconds down. Tomorrow is a 133km stage with something that looks like Skyuka starting at 10,000 feet and finishing at 12,000 feet. We will position Thomas so he can do well on the climb and hopefully take the yellow jersey.

Here is a link to my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/341502809