Rose Hill Plaza to L’Aventure du Sucre (114.4km)
Stage 5 was the second of the climbing stages, with Eau Bouillie (4.5km @ 6%) coming close to the finish.
The goal of this stage was to get Andrew to the climb with no problems. Once again, we needed to make sure we got into any moves that went, so that we did not have to expend a lot of effort chasing a break. Unfortunately, things did not go quite according to plan. After a number of early attacks, the Yellow Jersey (Sylvain Georges) punctured. The bunch sat up to wait for him, but after a few moments, riders started going off the front. In the ensuing confusion, a break formed, and we weren’t represented. Fortunately though, Standard Bank was not represented either, and they combined with DSTV (actually the second Standard Bank team), and controlled the front.
The stage was very comfortable, while everyone waited for the big climb of the day. My main responsibility was to stay close to the front and out of trouble. Leading up to the climb, Standard Bank upped the tempo and started putting pressure on. At this point I was not feeling great and I was getting a bit concerned. Fortunately though, when we hit the climb I did better than I expected and had good power. Not enough to stay with the front guys, but better than expected. On this climb, Sylvain George showed his class and rode away from the rest of the contenders. The only survivor of the break, David Kinjah, stayed away over the climb and went on to claim a good solo stage win. Unfortunately on the descent, Andrew misjudged a corner and had a minor crash. This lost him a bit of time and enabled Yannick Lincoln to get enough time on him to take second place on the General Classification.
No comments:
Post a Comment