sutty68 wrote:
Am i right in thinking its a female

Ian Butler wrote:
It seems every time I lost track of the story and return, you are at the ToB. Either this is a funny coincidence or your story is the slowest ever

“Hannah...� I mean of course she had moved back to the UK. Still I hadn't expected her to come and actively find me, our last communication left it the opposite way around. I wasn't going to complain and whisked her off to my room before any press caught me. We could talk up there for a while.

As these reunions tend to be we didn't do much talking. Awkawrd small talk passed the time before she had to broach the subject of why she was here. “Because I didn't know when you would be back in the UK. It's been near enough 500 days and I havn't been really happy on any of them but one, watching you win the Roubaix.�

“I don't know when you finish your season but when you do i'm inviting you to stay for a bit and we can do some proper talking and thinking. They say you never really get over your first love and I think they might be right. We've always had something Karl, ever since school. And i'm not going to let it go just yet.�

Those dark, satanic mills flash past the peloton as we speed through old mining and industrial country. The Black Mountains are behind us though leaving just one climb up Caerphilly Mountain between us and the finish line. A breakaway sits roughly 2 minutes ahead, consisting of the usual types of unkown riders hoping for some luck.

Unfortunately for them Node4 has decided to make this whole stage hell. They've set a high pace from the start trying to snap the peloton in half and isolate me from the start. A number of climbs in the first half offered opportunity to do this and as we run tino the outskirts of town I am the only Millenium man left in this group, compared to 5 Node4 riders.

Kennaugh is launched into the climb at full tilt. I was muscled out and the gap opened. Kwiatkowski was the far side from me as well. A group of 5 pressed hard away lead by Peter. But Node4 wasn't going to break me like this. Digging deep into my reserves I pulled myself and Rowe up the climb and down the other side.

Both Kennaugh and Kwiatkowski were driving that lead group knowing if they could keep me behind the GC fight was between them. Luke just sat on my wheel, sandbagging like... well.. a sandbag. It was a short 5km blast across town down the seaside finish but with a few tough turns.

This benefited me because I was comfortably the best bike handler and could choose my lines freely. But the accelerations between corners favored the attackers because they could relay to save energy. The gap fluctuated around the 30� as we entered the final 2km. Not huge but could put me out the GC fight.

Matt Callaghan, Irish and of An Post, won the stage from the group of Kennaugh/Kwiatkowski. I did finish 6th place, Rowe wasn't going to sprint to give me any free seconds back! I'd thrown so much at that run in I couldn't lift my head to see the time gap. Mikel had to squeeze through the crowds to tell me. “19 seconds Karl. Huge effort, we're still in this one.�

Yesterday Node4 had shown what they could do as a team, today I decided we had to respond. Our morning meeting I made the plan clear to the team. I only had 5 guys to burn but they were ready to burn hard. We needed some fortune from the wind and nature duly delivered.

Roughly half way into the stage a break of 4 were ahead but the road turn 90 to the left as it came off the coast. Suddenly a moderate headwind became a strong crosswind. The Millenium boys lept to work and accelerated down the road. The peloton went from casual to almost a sprint in a hundred meters.

In turn I would have Asselman, Malmgren and Mihaylov burn themselves out in an attempt to break the peloton into echelons. I'd then be able to work with Henttala and Sobota and whoever came with us to try and break Node4. They hadn't been paying full attention and Kennaugh and Rowe were stranded about 50 riders back, an eternity...

As expected the elastic snapped with out issue. All 6 of us made the lead Echelon of 15 which included Offredo and Kwiatkowski, amazingly! It also held Wiles and Callaghan, two stage winners who could be threats today. But first was the matter of eliminating Node4 from the race.

The whole team, myself included, worked our asses off. Everyone took turns but the effort was noticably higher when we were working. With 20km to go we were nearing Bristol and the gap to E2 was over 90�, to Node4 it was over 3 minutes. They were gone, Rowe beaten and Kennaugh dispatched. One challenge dealt with but a big one still remained.

The group sped into Bristol and started shedding riders. Callaghan couldn't hold on and dropped with Asselman, Malmgren and Mihaylov and a few others. Entering town proper the group was down to 6: myself, Henttala and Sobota, Kwiatkowski, Offredo and Wiles.