Today was really up and down day. The stage started with a 4k climb straight after the neutral section with another one straight after. There was alot of attacks going but team Rabobank did an awesome job to not let anyone get away before the first sprint in which I got second and lotto won.
The rest of the stage was pretty calm until the last climb witch was a cat 1. It was a massive fight to the bottom of it but by the time we got to the top there was only 40 riders left with 3 Rabobank riders Sanchez, Wilco and I. It was only 22k from the top of the climb to the finish and the second bunch was 1 minute behind, but in no time we had 2 minutes 30 on them and then the race was over. My bunch was away I had really good position in the sprint on team sky’s wheel with Edvald Boasson Hagens wheel but wasn’t the right wheel unlucky but I’m second overall with 2 stages to go!!
Today started off to be a perfect day, nice weather and really good energy within the team after an awesome day yesterday. We all rode in really good position all day, Jos rode the front all day and did an awesome job!
Wilco road fantastic as always, moving us up through the bunch in the cross winds and when we needed him, Browni, Tom and Mark did an awesome job to lead me out for the finish but unlucky I lost the wheel in the last 2k and couldn’t get back to the front. Will try again tomorrow.
Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under was a very interesting day. It felt really good today, surprising after a long hot day yesterday. A brake away of two riders went away from the start and got the first two sprints and I won the bunch sprint for 3rd in both which gave me a 1 second time bonus on both. When we finally got the sterling loop Wil Clarke had 11 minutes with four laps of sterling to go. We thought we would catch him but got to the last lap and he still had 8 minutes on the bunch. The team was pulling full bland and got it down to 1 minute, I was in 5th position and hit out with 150 meters to go and got second with Simon Gerrans the Australian champion finishing 3rd.
Today was a very hot and windy day. The break away went after 10 kilometers of racing but no one wanted to attack because it was so hot with a strong head wind.
Four guys went away early on and got out to ten minutes but with the bunch working hard in the final 40 mins we caught them with 5k to go. The Rabobank team was in really good position till the crash at one kilometer to go, Mark finished 9th after avoiding a crazy crash.
Tune in for my stage 2 report tomorrow.
Bling
