I'm sitting here in my hotel room, which isn't actually a hotel room but some sort of camp for kids with a jungle gym, pool and soccer field, and although it's nothing flash - we are out in the middle of nowhere - I'm pretty content. It feels good here with nothing but trees and paddocks surrounding us. It's warm and sunny, I have the window open and although the Ipod is on shuffle it seems to be blasting out a selection of the best NZ music tracks; Fat Freddy's, Black Seeds, and Trinity Roots are a few that I've heard since I've been back in my room after a relaxing dip in the pool.

On the bike today I was much the same as I have been the last few days in the Tour - average. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless. We had a Cat 1 climb in the middle of the race today and it basically split the field in half of which I was in the second half. The break had gone well before the climb so the field splitting up didn't have much bearing on the race. In fact our group was so big that even if we were outside the time limit - which it looked like we were going to be at one point - I'm sure that they wouldn't have eliminated us.

Being away from all the other teams and in the middle of nowhere tonight is a nice change from all the mayhem that we normally have to deal with. The fact that the accommodation is so budget kind of just adds to the tranquility of it all.

My plan for the next couple of days is to try and get in the break if I get the chance - although that's always easier said than done.

Julz
Team Garmin-Chipotle presented by H3O

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