ToF Stage 3

If only I was as good on my bike as I was with predictions. Fredrick of Thanyapura, whom I was talking about, won today's stage in style and became the leader in the GC now. He attacked on the "wall" on the 38km right from the start and forced a super hard climb. Anyway the truth is out for me. I am not in the shape that I had desired for. And in this condition, is very hard to compete at this level.

I was with the first pack on the first half of the climb, but David Gowty from Cannasia in front of me opened up a small gap. The small gap then became a bike length, then 3, then it became too huge to close. Soon the second pack passed us, including Matt the leader. I suffered at the back of this group and the pain from my injuries didn't help. I felt pain all over my body and sore hips throughout the day. Soon i was spat out the back of the group. When I reach the top of the hill, I could see the group just ahead of me. But on the descend, they pulled away. After the descend, I was joined by a Cannasia guy and Specialized. We worked together for awhile before the Cannasia guy got dropped. I continued working with Bhimshi, Specialized KynKyny from India.

As if things weren't bad enough after the crash yesterday and getting dropped today, shit things happened again. On one of the junction, we were waiting for the marshals to guide us but they didn't. So we continued going straight and descended for another 2km before hitting a dead end at a jetty. The both of us were dumbfounded. I could hear Bhimshi cursing and swearing. We quickly u-turned and grinded back up the 2km climb. On the way up we saw the race organiser Titaree driving down looking for us. I could see from her look that she felt sorry. Oh well.. The wrong way had taken us a good 5-10mins. By the time we reached the top, the 30-39 cat just passed us and we quickly tagged along. After that it was just suffering and more suffering. I wasn't even competing anymore, I was trying to survive. Anyway, I finished the stage in 28th place, almost 30mins behind the 1st. Matt did not manage to finish the race and is out of GC contention. I hope he wasn't the Confero guy who crashed badly.

 I couldn't quite believe how badly this race has turned out for me. I thought this race would suit me. Maybe I'm burnt out from the exams and training, or maybe I'm just not quite cut out to be a cyclist. My motivation from the build-up up till the race was good. But as soon as the race started it seems like i have lost it. Anyway there are still 2 stages to go. Tomorrow will be another tough stage with lots of climbs but it'll be short. I still have a chance to redeem myself. I might try to go on the attack tomorrow. We shall see...

ToF Stage 2

ToF Stage 2 Today's stage ended up as what I had predicted, lots of people trying their luck but ending in a bunch sprint. But the route to the end of the stage wasn't quite what I had wanted and expected. Right from the start, I was going through a hard time getting my chain up to the big ring. The front derailluer was obviously not working. It gave me a huge scare really as I was thinking whether to stop and manually change it myself. But after 5mins of attempting, somehow it managed to move up finally. And I didn't dared touch it from then on. After sorting my chain out, i had a sudden urge to pee. This time I really had to stop. By the time I finished peeing, the whole convoy was gone and the road was open to traffic again. I had to chase hard and zig zag across the vehicles before finally getting back to the bunch. After the rolling start, there were many attacks and the pace went up and down. After much attempts, a group of 6 managed to get away and the pack settled into a steady pace.

It pretty much was for the remaining race until the 90km mark when the break was eventually caught. Throughout the race I kept reminding myself to hydrate and eat. The weather in Thailand was really hot up to 38deg celcius. I am hoping this would be a slight advantage for me over the rest of the pack, that is made up of mostly Caucasians, in the next few days. Team DirectAsia.com, Mavericks, Cannasia and Specialized were the teams doing most of the work today. After the break was caught, the pack came to life again as many attacks started happening. These were tense moments as the group was swinging from every direction, even using up the lanes which were open to traffic. Fredrick of Thanyapura managed to get away solo amidst the chaos. He was very active earlier on too. He looked very strong for a small guy and is lying 15th in GC after a good time trial on first stage! He would eventually be caught in the last 10km but good try from him. I would be watching out for him in the hills as I'm sure he can climb very well.

Then in the last 15km, disaster for me as I went down hard after hitting a bump while drinking from the bottle. I slided on the hot tarmac for a good 5m at around 43km/h before coming to a halt. My jersey and bib were torn and I had some nasty road rashes. But I really felt sorry for the guy who went down with me as he broke his collarbone. It could have been really worse for me too. I quickly got up, checked myself and my bike, had quick words with the guy and then jumped on my bike. The chase was really tough as the pack, which was cruising at a high speed by now, had opened up a huge gap on me. A support vehicle which was stucked earlier, accelerated pass me as I flagged for it to slow down. I was disgusted really. I thought these guys would be passionate about bike racing and would be willing to help riders get back to the bunch. Unfortunately, not vehicle number 6. Then a police bike came round me to check if I'm okay. I told him to go in front of me but I think he didn't quite get me. I went to the back of his bike anyway and then he get the idea. But clearly he hasn't done motor pacing before. Either his pace was super fast I was struggling, or super slow I had to come round him. After about 5-8km of mad chasing I managed to reach the tail end of the convoy. I slowly moved up vehicle by vehicle and to my relief I was back in the pack. I really didn't want to lose any more time, especially on a stage like this.

Last few hundred metres

I was thinking of a podium at first but was really just content with finishing in the pack now. I quickly recovered a little. In the last 5km it was utter chaos again. Lots of fighting for positions against the strong headwind. Then a crash happened in the middle of the pack. It took out quite a number of riders. I was glad I wasn't involved again this time as going down again would really put a huge knock on my morale. I tried to hang on and sprinted in the last 300m. I was about 5th then but I went out too early against the wind. In the last 100m, few riders overtook me and I finished 12th eventually. I could only imagine what I could achieve if I hadn't crash and timed my sprint a little better.

Crossing the line

Tomorrow is the all important stage. It is sad that I had to race it in pain. But I will try my best to stick with the best and hopefully gain a few GC spots. On a side note, Raymond is having his usual room service supper. Tonight he is having Tom yam soup and basil rice. Smells delicious! But I do not want to lower my power to weight ratio.. :P

ToF Stage 1 & Pre Stage 2

Stage 1 (Prologue): 7km ITT Well, the race finally got under way. The course for this time trial was nice, a long straight road out and back, with a short slope at the start/finish line area in the middle. I did a nice 2 laps warm up before the first guy went off. I figured it was tailwind from the start, and strong headwind after the U- turn. If everything goes according to plan I should be taking roughly 10mins to complete the course, considering I normally clock around 12-13mins for a 20mins interval. It is not too long, but also not that short. I should stick to a zone somewhere between threshold and VO2. 

After my 2 laps warm up

We went off in 30secs intervals, when it was my turn to go, I sprinted off on my drops. Immediately, I was struggling with some gearing problems but managed to get it sorted out in the first 200m. Soon I got back to my saddle and settled into a nice rhythm. I looked at my Garmin and it showed 51km/h. For a moment I thought my Garmin gps wasn't getting a good signal. But then I started looking at the surrounding and it feels that I was really going very fast!  Perhaps faster than what I should be going. So I eased off a little knowing its tailwind and will be headwind coming up. I was right. After the turn, the wind blasted straight at my face. I couldn't manage to get my speed up to over 40km/h. It was tough. Not long, Matt from Team DirectAsia.com overtook me. I tried to pace him over the next 1km but the gap increased as he rode away from me. Demoralised, I kept pushing on at my own pace with my throat running dry and even struggled to swallow my saliva. On the last 500m I increased my effort and on my drops, I sprinted with all I could up the finishing slope. My legs were burning with lactic as I crossed the line with a time of 10mins 38secs. The fastest time of the day was 9mins 20secs by Matt of Confero Mavericks team. So I am now 1mins 18secs behind the race leader, 30th out of a total of 40 riders who started in my cat this morning.

After the race I took a look at my Garmin and noticed my average power over the course. I did not managed to hit the wattage that I had aimed for, 15watts short, but I certainly did it above my threshold power. Perhaps I could have pushed a little harder, but it was near my best efforts. It was almost the best that I could have done, but apparently it wasn't good enough. I was quite surprised by the level of the field to be honest. Maybe a clip on acrobars could have helped a little but nothing more than 10secs. So disappointed as I was, there are still 4 more days and 4 more chances to go. This race is not over yet.

Tomorrow's stage will be a pancake flat stage covering 120km. Some of the big teams will definitely send some riders to go into breaks and force the leader and his team to do some work. Some more ambitious might try to gain time by forcing a break to work. There are also time bonuses for finishing the stage in top 3 positions, so it'll be interesting especially when the GC now is only separated by few seconds. Tomorrow will probably be a day for me to conserve my legs for Stages 3 and 4, since I have nothing to lose anyway. I might have a go at the sprint finish if I have a chance. Will also need to watch out for splits or potential GC contenders slipping away.  That's all for now. Time to get some good rest! Goodnight...