The time trial came round. Without Michal in the team I was the best against the clock. Even so I could only manage 16th position, not bad but not special. Luke went well but slipped down the GC table a bit. Our hopes of good GC finishes were gone, but stage glory could still be achieved.

So Stage 5 was back to normal, working for Luke and the early team attempts to get away. Daily routine was getting easier now and Luke kept up his end of things with another 5th place finish.

Stage 6 was the final one. Again we worked our asses off for Rowe hoping that he could finally move up the results sheets. He managed it! Luke found a final extra bit of speed and rounded out a good race with a podium finish, 3rd place on the final day!

The Danmark Rundt wasn’t particularly great. The whole team was consistent for 6 stages, which was promising. Luke bagged some good results and the general team atmosphere was upbeat and happy heading into the final phases of the season.

Lets skip over August somewhat, hardly any racing anyway and nothing much of consequence. I continued to think about 2015 with Motorola’s offer resting heavily in my mind. Phil could tell I was a bit stressed and kept asking me why, but I couldn’t tell him that I might be leaving.

Then the World Ports Classic came around. It was the team’s final race before the Tour of Britain, so the last chance to bag a spot on the squad. A two day race most likely for the sprinters. Stage 1 was hit by big winds, and that changed a lot.

Early on the pace was high as no-one could quite decide on who would be allowed into the break, resulting in no breakaway being allowed to form. With about an hour left to race the route took a sharp right turn, and the wind switch. Suddenly there was a strong crosswind blowing up to 30mph!

I don’t know who started it but suddenly the pace sky rocketed. A line of riders stretched across the road and the echelon started to roll away. Cronshaw was designated team leader, but I couldn’t see him. So I accelerated across the gap, only two more riders made the junction behind me, and then the echelon just put the hammer down and went away.

Over the radio I could hear the DS, Mikel, panicking trying to figure out who was where. Matt had missed the split, but had the rest of the squad with him. I was the only one to make the move.

“Ok Karl, you’re ok to go with the move�. That was relief. I joined in the work up front and the echelon powered down the roads. The gap behind was opening up without a strong team organising a chase. The front group was about 30 strong and included at least one rider from almost each team.

There were a few attacks coming in to the finish, but I couldn’t cover them. I came across the line about 30 seconds behind the winner in 14th place. Matt and the rest of the team were another 2 minutes behind my group, putting them over 2’30 down overall. Barring anything crazy on stage 2 the GC looked pretty much set.

We were about half way through the second day when things went south. Matty punctured but the pace was pretty calm. A couple of guys dropped back and paced him up to the peloton again, no problems. Nothing special, no drama, just simple teamwork. Then, with about 50km to go I punctured. The pace was still not too high, but the chase was on.

I swapped wheels from the team car and started chasing back. After a few minutes I started to wonder where my support was. A few more moments later and I voiced my thoughts. “Mikel, is anyone coming back to help me?�
“Oh Karl, ermm… They rest of the guys are busy aiding Matt towards the finish. You’re only 30seconds or so behind now, just push on and it’ll be fine�

Not again…

Shonak wrote:
I've read The Breakup in one sit now, really liking. Great writing and nice personalities in the story. Nice way of telling the story and you add quite some depth with a few key sentences I think. Over time I'll read the other parts too, but for now let's just say: Go for Motorola, these guys are behaving like utter fools by now. I doubt they would even want to re-sign Karl.

The pinnacle of the teams season, the Tour of Britain 2014. Last year this race was just so off the hook. We dominated in great form bagging multiple stages and jerseys. I won a stage and was leading the race before… before…. Well, you know what happened. This year is going to be different again, with it being my last race for Node4-Rexona. It’s a strong squad as well. Michal is here to defend his GC title, Kennaugh and I are focused on those hillier stages with him. Luke is the best sprinter in the field, aided by Scott and Matt to make a deadly finishing trio. Yanto and Marcin top it off as general help and breakaway riders.

Stage 1 is a time trial. A quick 20km on open roads to set up an early GC fight. Michal is of course the best here and delivered the relevant time to take a comfortable stage win. I went out ahead of him, just like in Bayern, and posted a decent time. I ended the day in 15th place about 1’40 behind Michal. I was hoping for better but I couldn’t find the power.

Day Two was the first Road stage of the race. Pretty much flat the entire time and the final 6km or so were pan flat and arrow straight, to make for a perfect sprinters finish. The team set about keeping the breakaway in check and ramped the pace up with 20km to go. The sprinting trio did not disappoint on home turf delivering Rowe comfortably to the finish line in first place.

Two days, two wins. Perfect start to the race and one we hoped to continue as things got tougher on stage three.

The third stage of the race was certainly tougher. The day was punctuated by a number of short sharp ascents, with a big climb about 15km from the finish line. Big meant it was 4-5km long and 5-6%, so not exactly a mountain but certainly enough to make things difficult for the sprinters and flat specialists.

We began the day by selecting the breakaway, allowing a couple of younger British guys from Raleigh and the GB team to go away as a duo. They would be no threat and easy to catch later on. From there it was just settle down, manage the gap and prepare for the fireworks later on.

At 50km to go a couple of people attacked, not exactly any one special but just hoping for a surprise victory. From here to roads got lumpier, so Yanto upped the pace to shake out a few guys if possible. We continued pace making up to the base of the final climb. The earlier duo and the later chasers were caught as we reached the climb. Peter and I again upped the pace but the climb was not hard enough to make a serious selection.

Michal tapped me on the shoulder as we got near to the summit. We exchanged a look and knew what to do. The climb crested out, the road dropping away down the far side. I opened up the taps and plummeted away