hopefully that?s gonna kick in and save me soon.

Stage 7 from
St Moritz - Ascona was suppose to be the last chance for a big field sprint. With a hard start and a cat 1 climb in the middle with 90km to go, it was going to be a difficult and long 230km day. The thing that made the stage particularly tough was that for the opportunists, it was the last chance at a breakaway. So from the start, up the cat 2 climb out of
St Moritz and then down the 30km descent, it was balls to wall from the gun. I never thought that going downhill could be so bloody hard.

On the descent the peloton split into a number of groups before it eventually came back together but after 60km a group of 8 finally broke away, including training partner, Whitey.

As we settled in to get over the climb, the sprinters teams gathered at the front and it was all on to bring the break back before the finish. With an advantage of 8min at the top of the climb, it was one of those situations where you could never tell until the death whether or not we were going to be able to reel them in. And as I figured, it came down to the wire. We caught all the riders, bar Freire, in the last 500m.

As for me, I wasn't really able to contend the sprint. I seem to be missing my raw power that I normally have on tap. I?m not sure why. (Probably has something to do with your never-ending battle this season of chasing your tail to find your healthy and uninjured self!- Carole the Ed). I was pretty sure that I was riding good through the week and that when I got the chance in the sprint I would able to hold my own. But it wasn't the case today. I was struggling to be there. From that point of view, things don't look that good for the Tour. In a situation like today, the team would normally expect me to show a little form at least.

Tomorrow we have the last mountain stage. It's going to be another hard one. Great?

Julian