You may have noticed these entries have been getting shorter and shorter a the days go by. Well, that’s because we have been doing a lot of traveling and other stuff that takes up a lot of time. I have had less and less opportunity to write each day. I’ll do my best though…
Beautiful day for a bike race. Sunny and warm, but not hot and just a hint of a breeze. We got the bikes loaded onto the truck for the 2 hour journey from Shenzhen to Dongguan. It was a nice drive through the countryside that ended up in the most Post-modern looking city I’ve ever seen. Nearly every building we saw looked like it shouldn’t be built for another 30-40 years. They were all glass and steel and curvy and Spaceship-y. It was really cool!
The race started a bit trickier then the previous 2 stages. after the opening straightaway, the circuit turned right onto a big arcing, slow curve that had 2 speed bumps in it. Yes, I said speed-bumps. One of the guys from the Chinese National team crashed on the first one. He was OK, and got back up right away and eventually caught back on. This race was 30 laps of a 3.3 km course. The were a few small breaks early that looked like they might have a chance, but no. At lap 18 a group of 22 managed to get a lead of 1:15. The Race leader is on the Chinese team and they had 2 guys in the breakaway. The rest of the team was slowing the pack down trying to let them open up. This one almost stayed away, but…The Champion System team didn’t have anyone in the break. Chad, Gavi, Alberto and Vladimir worked their asses off to chase that break down. It only took 4 laps to kill off the minute-plus lead. Great job guys! Brian did the best he could today but he was also battling the flu. He did a lot of work early in the race, but the last half he just tried to hang on. A couple laps later Alberto and 10 other guys made another strong move. This time, nobody had the energy or the will to chase it down. With 3 laps left it was obvious that the pack was content to let this break take the win. Alberto did a great job of making the break work, but rested a a lot during the last couple of laps to get ready for the sprint. China again had 2 guys in the break and on the last lap they sent one guy off the front to see if they could either steal the victory or at least fatigue all the others for the sprint. Well, it worked…kind of. the solo rider couldn’t get away from Alberto and a couple of others. It came down to a sprint finish with the Other Chinese guy taking the win and Alberto coming in 3rd and gained 1:40 on the Peloton. He had a great day today. Overall he’s sitting in 4th position only 17 seconds behind the overall leader.
