STAGE 4 CHINA: MAYBE JUST THE GREEN??

A ‘Chinese block’ is what results when 80 Chinese cyclists rally against the remaining 20. They place 70 riders across the width of the road at 30km/hr while the remnants ride off the front at 50km/hr. Yesterday mere pushing and yelling occurred, today crashes and spitting! For the third consecutive day we combined with the Dutch to lead a disorganised chase contending with the Chinese for the final time. The result however was foreseen and we all failed. We lost the yellow. We lost the teams. As a consolation prize we held onto the points, the only jersey the Chinese didn’t manage to obtain. What am amazing job by the team today. For 100kms the girls chased everything and I even managed some prime points along the way.

The final break went with 30kms of the tour to race and with 5 Chinese up the road we knew it was dangerous. We got the order from Bel and combined with the Dutch we chased our hearts out. I was assigned a race radio for the day and we were informed of time gaps on the road. The break was bought back from 52sec to 19 in the final 10kms, but 17 was all we could allow before losing the yellow. As it turned out we were unaware that the break had split with Li Meifang finishing a further 21sec up the road. It was hard not to be disappointed, but as our first tour together we decided to be proud. We walked with two stage wins and the points! Now that’s inspiring :) After skipping on hand washing we attended our farewell dinner, more disgusting seafood platters. We didn’t care, there was plenty of alcohol and Bill had bought dessert!

Results: Tour of Chong Ming Island, Stage 4, Chongdong, 100kms