Stage 4 and Robbie is sore!

Yesterday’s stage 5 was 214.5 km from Abbeville to Rouen. A perfect sprinter’s finish, however not so perfect for our man- Robbie Hunter. Quite gut wrenching to say the least. The fact that we did not receive Robbie’s post last night, indicated that he was definitely not feeling great. Our hats off to you!

So the blog is a tad late….. but I kind of, actually, was not in the mood last night.

I’m pretty sure you all saw the reason for that……

Need we say more?
(Photo taken from the Durango Herald website)

I feel like death warmed up this morning but hey, the show must go on!

Yesterday was a Long day in the saddle- 214 kms. 3 guys went on the “suicide mission” to stay out there all day when it was always going to be a bunch kick. Not something I say I had the morale to do- looking back now it was probably the safer option.

The day was controlled by Radioshack and Lotto, as they are the teams who were (and are) interested in the stage and obviously the race leader.

The final 50 kms things started to get real fast. Even more so- the last 20.

Most of the day in the group was spent speaking a bunch of rubbish to a whole lot of people including Daryl Impey. Seems like he is having a lot of fun out there, and hey why not? He is riding well and staying out of “harms way” for now. It also makes it even more fun when the team you racing with is making things happen. Greenedge are chasing the Green Jersey with Gossy, and stages. Kind of keeps you on your toes all day- everyday.

The final of yesterday’s race was always going to be interesting with a small climb 10 kms from the finish that saw Gilbert trying to get away. There was really no chance with a few teams making sure it was going to be a sprint.

The last 4 kms was a down hill; a couple of corners; a crosswind and 700 meters straight to the line…….

But then- there was a HUGE crash just under 2 kms to go.

I have no idea what caused it but I do know what took me down.

The Bike of Eisel went straight into my front wheel and I had no chance of even trying to get out of the way. Front wheel locked up tight and I went flying………………… I landed pretty hard on my upper back and I can definitely feel it now.

While we were on the ground I was trying to keep my cool. Normally with the crappy temper I have, if I had of known who had caused it I would  have given them a piece of my mind- with a few choice words thrown in here and there.

All I remember was Cav screaming “who’s fault was that?” and it turns out people saying that it was Bernie’s fault. I never saw it but it would help if sometimes people used their brakes to get out of trouble in stead of trying to straight charge through holes that are not even there.

I can honestly say I even enjoyed the crash when I saw it on TV. It was pretty spectacular.

(The reason I got up so fast after the first tumble was that I just hate losing my skin to the asphalt. There is nothing worse than trying to sleep when you stick to the bed sheets and it just plain hurts like hell. After day 1 in which I lost a lot of skin on the arm I wasn’t so keen to lose any more. Seems I was still going too fast to get up and run and had to do another tuck and roll.. 😉

It was good to see Daryl getting right up there, even though he has his job to do for Gossy. He is riding really well and I’m sure he has got a lot more to give before this race is over.

Hopefully I will be in the same boat, but for now I need a few EASY days! Doubt I will be up there sprinting today.

Robbie

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