The
rest day was a day of triumph for the Italians in the race and a day of
disappointment for the French. Unfortunately for me, although I don't mind
soccer, I can't get my head around how the World Cup can be decided from a
penalty shoot out. I reckon there should be double over time where the team who
scores first, wins. They get paid enough…
Well,
just done stage 9. Things are moving along quickly. Already I’ve been away from
home for two weeks. It has passed quickly but I’m really missing Carole and
Tanner… Especially yesterday. When I saw all the other guys around the hotel
with their kids, it made me miss Tanner even more. Even when I go away for just
a few days he changes and I can’t help but think about what he’s going to be up
to after not seeing him for a month.
Julian Dean - Team Credit Agricole sprinter. Photo copyright Roadcycling.com
In
any case, the rest day went down well even though I missed my family. Firstly
the plane transfer was smooth as... Often in the past, it has been a right cock
up and taken hours. This time though, all was good and by 9pm we were in the
hotel at Bordeaux.
The
next day I rolled out for an easy 2hrs with Thor along a nice bike path that
headed out of Bordeaux toward the coast. We preferred to
train by ourselves because we could leave a little later and go a little easier,
which we like to do on rest days. Leave late, ride easy. Then it was back to the
hotel to watch a movie, chill out, and get the legs rubbed. Truth is, I wouldn’t
mind a few more days like this. That would be perfect. In fact, I wouldn’t mind
a whole life of days like that; 2hr rides, chilling out and a massage
everyday.
So
this morning we left Bordeaux for the last real sprint stage before
we head into the mountains. It was a flat stick one down the coast to the
Spanish border. The first totally flat day that we have had and we rode it
averaged it at 50km/hr. It just seemed crazy during the stage when I looked down
at different times at the computer and we were doing 50km/hr and it was feeling
easy. Other times when I felt like it was a little hard, I looked at the
computer and we were doing 60km/hr. It’s just amazing what feels easy after
riding two weeks in the tour.
Anyway,
the stage came down to a sprint and despite feeling good throughout the day I
was missing a lot of power in the sprint.
After
I got quacked just after the 1km banner, I tried to come back to Thor to help
him but just didn't have the power to get to him before the sprint started. For
us, and me personally, it was a disappointing day.
We are starting to get
frustrated that things are not going our way.
I’m
frustrated as I’m not feeling as good as I can and the team bosses are starting
to scratch their heads. Things are getting difficult for us all. We just have to
try and hang in there and hope we have a chance to do something in the last
week.
Tomorrow
the mountain stages begin. We’ll start to see who the real contenders are in the
next couple of days. This will be when the real race begins to emerge. It’s
pretty exciting as it’s wide open and I think that there’s going to be some good
racing with some big attacks.
My
prediction is that on the podium in Paris, we’ll see a Russian (that can include
someone from any of the old Soviet states), any Aussie (for the first time
ever), and an American – and not in any particular order.
As
for me, I just hope that I can get through the mountains.
