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Email 10 May 2004 |
GP de Cize
Once again France offered the best of its weather, Rain and cold for my 2nd
come back race. Our team had 4 riders in it including myself, Joel ( other
Aussie) and two of the local Frenchies! The race was a short one but a
quite difficult circuit, 5km lap with 3km of uphill then 2kn of down hill
back around to the finish. 15 laps to go as we set off and the attack went
from the gun. AG2R rider attacked immediately and the two French riders in
our team went with this. This gave us a huge upper hand having two riders
in the break of 3 and not having an pressure on us to chase and allow the
other teams to do the work. After 2 laps Joel attacked and managed to
bridge across to the break and then shortly afterwards I was taken across by
another rider.
So after 15km there was a 6 man break up the road with all 4 of our team
present in this break. Since I was fresh when I got across I attacked and
went clear with another team mate and two other riders. We were working
well and constantly increasing our lead over the bunch every lap. At one
stage with 15km to go we had 2 minute lead of the main Peleton following us.
Coming around for the bell lap Joel managed to bridge across and
immediately attacked but this was chased down by the other riders. We
constantly attacked the whole last lap however the other riders we
determined not to let anybody get away and bring in down to a 6 man bunch
kick. With Joel being the strongest sprinter there this was also good for
our team. One of the other riders hit out with 400 metres to go and Joel
quickly responded and jumped onto him. With 200 metres to go Joel stepped
out and off he went with nothing but sunlight between him and 2nd place and
myself crossing the line in 3rd position and another team mate Seb in 4th.
Very pleased with this result as the team was able to get a victory and one
the team classification overall clearly!
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