Tour of Belize Stages 5&6 Conclusion

Hey all,



I am doing this post from the philly airport. Sorry I couldn't get online to post about the last 2 stages. Here is the scoup....


STAGE 5


This was the epic stage of this race. If anything was going to change on general clacification, it would happen on this day. From the get go, it was fairly calm in the field. Mike was hurting early in the race and let me know, so that I could take over feeding duties for Gabe and Tony. Mike had to drop out of the race as we reached the first climbs of the day. I was at the back of the pack getting ready to float back into the caravan to the team car for bottles. Little did I know we were reaching the largest climb of the day at the same time. I got stuck behind riders who were getting dropped. Tried to get back into the main field, but not enough gas in the tank. I was bummed I couldnt be there longer to help Gabe and Tony out more, but there was nothing I could do. Gabe and Tony rocked all day long and stayed with the field. Gabe finished in the top 20 and Tony in the top 30. The roads on this stage were REALLY bad. Every single joint in my hands, and every muscle in my arms were soar after the race from all the jarring. As you rode, every bump sapped that much more energy out of your legs. It was a very long 182km! I finished with a group of about 30 behind the main field. Gabe and Tony are riding strong!

Stage 6

Final day! I felt relief that we were finally on the last leg of this race. Each morning became more and more difficult to get up in the morning. Gabe crashed 2 times already and had soar ribs and hips. He was barley getting out of bed! It was down to just 3 of use now. Gabe, Tony and myself. All I wanted to do today was help out Gabe as much as I could and make sure that he had bottle so he could get to the finish and secure his place in GC. Mike was in the team car in the caravan behind. On the race radio he said "90-miles and you will have completed your first ever UCI stage race". That game me a lot of motivation. A UCI stage race... WOW. I stuck around Gabe at the front most of the way through the race, getting him and Tony bottles. As we reached very long stretch of road that is notorious of strong cross winds, the USA national team went to the front and throttled it. 30+mph into a cross wind and the field totally shattered. I knew this was going to happen, so I stayed towards the front, but I guess I was not up far enough, because riders started to pop in front of me, and before I knew it I was moving backwards away from the leaders. Tony missed it was well, so we rode in a group together. Gabe, being the stud he is, stayed with the leaders all the way! He crashed again (3rd time!) going into Belize city. He quickly chased back on the finished with the field. Unbelievable. Great Job Gabe! He finished just outside of the top ten on GC. A great result for sure! The bad news, is the money he won will have to go towards fines that the team owes for not using the proper prosedure during feeding in the early stages. This was purely missunderstanding of the UCI rules on our part. Oh well, that'll happen. 150 swiss franks.

So that's is! My first UCI stage race complete! 800km of racing. Counting the miles we rode before the race started, I put in a little over 700 miles this week. I think a little relaxation is on order right now.

Thanks for the support, and for reading!

Alliance is going to rock this season!

best,

TG