Well I've made it to Seoul and the finish of the tour. I think when i last updated it was just before the rest day. Well the rest day was as relaxing as could be, went for a bit of a Cruise on the bike to keep the blood flowing and my legs felt sooo dead.
I think the lack of prep was catching up on me so I was pleased that today was the day I was going to feel crap.
Josh and Teammate collect team prize earlier in tourStage 7
Today was a biggy in fact the 2ND longest of the tour at 192k. It started with a small climb up out of town, and then a quick decent before pretty much being false flat up hill all day long till we got to over 900 meters above sea level. I pretty much sat at the front all day just keeping an eye on things and staying out of trouble. Wasn't feeling to bad but part way through the stage near the half way mark I started feeeling realy dead. Quickly smacked some water and food back and that helped a little, unfortunately just after the feed zone on the decent I ended up stuck in the middle of the road in a mine feild of cats eyes. Quite simply blew my tyres out front and rear. Dam!!
We changed them pretty quickly, dam I could not believe how fast our mechanic fixed it, I stopped whipped my wheel out and stuck it in the van and he had the other on and ready to go, all done in half a minute, unfortunatly we didnt realise at the time that both were out due to the rear one going down slower. But that was ok as once I had new wheels "Tyre"(our mechanich) just held my back and made it look like he was adjusting stuff on my bike while "Wizzard"(manager) drove rediculously fast to sling me back in to the convoy. I got back on easy enough but that wasn't really what I wanted with my legs feeling average and the last big climb coming. Well we hit the climb and it was false flat for a few km's and then kicked up for the last 2. I was going backwards on the false flats and completely cracked once it kicked up. I dragged myself to the top and got a bottle from the feed zone and got ready for the chase.
I dont think I have ever ridden down a hill like that before I think we had 30km of decending with the top couple being realy steep hair-pins which we flew through thankfully in the dry as in the past they were saying it has been really wet there and super dodgey. Once we had that part down it was huge long staights where you just tucked in and coasted wicked fast, I'm sure we must of been almost doing 100kph.
Anyways it was just lapping it out in the group to to the finish now. I was pleased to finish and hoping that I'd feel better tomorrow.
Stage 8
Today was NASTY, from pretty much sea level to just over 900m in not long.
First 30km's all uphill, false flats then the climb just ramped right up. It was on from go, and part way in to the start of the main climb I was not in a good way, feeling dizzy and like I was going to pass out or something. I was a bit worried as I didn't want to dnf or have to pull out. I just focused on riding a good tempo and making the top with a group as far up the bunch as I could. Well I made it over the climb and we had another dodgey as decent this time in the wet.
The rest of the stage was pretty straight foward.
lapping it out in the groupetto with about 10 or 15 other guys. We had more behind us which was good to know but as the day wore on and people got worn out eventully we were the last group on the road with 5 or 6 of us left, I cant really remember because with 20km to go I cracked so bad and was just struggling to stay with the group. Well I got there in the end finishing the stage in 80th place dead last but pretty dam glad I had made it. After the stage we had to transfer to Seoul for a half hour crit tomorow.
Crit Stage 9
Well the crit looked pretty nasty, 3k circuit through a park over pretty much cobbles, dam I hate these things as it is but with 3km loop of cobbles as well!?!?! oh well got to be done.
Well to cut it short by now my legs are completely screwed to the wall and weren't really to keen to go, so I dropped and lapped out of the race pretty quick.
So I've finaly made it and finished the tour, with jsut short of 1500km in 11 stages it was pretty dam hard to say the least and pretty tiring to. My legs are pretty worn out but I now have to recover up and get ready to start the Tour of Quinghai Lake in China in about a weeks time.
Well that's all for now
Josh
