Municipalité de Port-Louis to L’Aventure du Sucre (110.8km)
Originally when we looked at the route map, we thought that the stage would start up the main road between Port Louis and Grand Baie. This road is a slight drag, very exposed, with a strong cross-wind (coming from behind). Perfect gutter conditions, so the plan was to go to the front right at the start and see if we could split up the bunch. Later in the stage, there was a 14km section that would also be very hard, so this stage was going to be tough.
Unfortunately, the route turned off the main road, and went along a narrow road, through plenty of towns. Not good for a sustained gutter strategy, but we went ahead and strung the bunch out anyway. After a lot of pressure, Philip Fourie (TCS) went off the front and got a small gap. Next, Melt Swanepoel attacked, and I went with. At this point, Standard Bank (holding the leaders jersey), was content to let it go and we quickly got the gap up to a minute.
The three of us were working well together, when Melt unfortunately punctured. At this point, we had just over a 1 minute break. Philip and I slowed for a while, but we were not sure if Melt had received assistance and the team car indicated that the gap was starting to close. After about 5km, we made the decision to go again and unfortunately Melt was not able to get across to us.
The long, slow, uphill section of the course started, and I felt that if we could get over the top, we would have a chance of making it to the finish – about 15km descent. Close to the top, Philip popped off and I was left alone to see if I could try to solo to the finish. I took the 2 KOM primes, but was caught with about 8km to go to the finish.
From a GC perspective, nothing changed, but my break allowed the team and Andrew to have an easy day, so job done! I was also awarded the jersey for the Most Aggressive rider for the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment