Stage 3 was the queen stage. Lumpy terrain, a big climb, then lumpy terrain again, before a downhill finish. This will be the stage my leadership may be called into question, as almost all of us are going to give it a go.
As expected, the break was caught before the big climb, and the action started. Our very own Travis Burt out in a daring move and found himself in a group of 5 up the road.
Travis' group was caught, but for a moment he and I were our teams representatives in a group of 9, all of whom were accomplished climbers! Unfortunately he was dropped, as were many others, but I remained in touch.
The group thinned out further and further. Even top riders like Dan Martin, Nieve and the like all began to pay for their earlier exertions. I was still in contact though!
Over the top we saw two attacks. I was unable to follow, so Bauke Mollema was up the road, with Daniel Moreno in pursuit. I was leading group 3, followed by Contador and Kangert!!!
The lumpy terrain was much more to my suiting. On the flat and downhills i was the strongest man anywhere near the front. I pulled in Moreno, but Mollema was long gone. I gave up on the chase, and his lead grew, he won by almost 1 minute in the end, as we all prepared for the sprint.
As the second best sprinter, I chose Moreno's wheel. He'd be tired from his attack, but the other two were hopeless, and I wasn't going to lead out anyone with acceleration like the Spaniard's.
Knowing my speciality is the longer sprint, I went early, hoping to catch out the punchier riders like Moreno and Contador. It worked, and I beat them by a considerable margin to second place. This was brilliant, I was beating top riders, and had a second in the GC and young rider jersey to defend tomorrow.
Travis rode in beside some early attack companions such as Gorka Verdugo, in 9th place, just over 3 minutes down.
In my preparation for tomorrow, I got a text from Ricardo. He is doing fantastically in Qatar and got 5th place on the latest stage!
Today isn't really a hilly stage, I'd be surprised if an attack won this one, so it looks like a punchy sprinter will take this. I need to defend my GC 2nd place.
We seemed to be the only ones who wanted the break back today. Since it was the final stage, the lads obliged and worked all day long.
Over the final climb I attacked, hoping maybe to form a group and work up to the break. Unfortunately no one followed me, and Belkin came to the front quickly. I held the gap at 39 seconds for many kilometres though.
After a while I realised there was no point, I had 0 cushion for when the sprint trains came anyway.
In fact, the strongest sprint train was our own. Again using the 'last stage' logic, they went crazy, and gave 100% for me. My final lead out was Tom O'Malley, whose bad form had prevented him form having a crack earlier as well.
In the end it was all for nothing, the breakaway just won. Maybe if my attack lasted a bit longer then Belkin would've chased harder, but hey, it's all in the past now. Barbin took the win for Bardiani, my half hearted sprint was no match for the likes of Gianni Meersman behind.
None of this really mattered though, what matted was that I'd podiumed in my first race back against WT opposition.
The team also took a strong 1-2 in the young rider stakes, well be a force to be reckoned with in the future.
Last, but by no means least, we won the team ranking by a meer 4 seconds from Saxo Tinkoff.
It's been an amazing race in Mallorca, if I do this well in Indonesia I will surely win!!
Ricardo just sent me an email telling me what happened in the latest stage of Qatar.
The team was insanely strong on stage 6. We split the field in the crosswinds, but it's no surprise with a crazy Brazilian cobbler up front. Toms Ozolinsh and Djaja finished the job well, putting Ricardo in an astounding, if still hard to win from, position. Meanwhile, behind him thundered the world's best in sprinting, he was hanging on by the skin of his teeth.
Ricardo had reacted to Cavendish's acceleration and it turned out the Manx Missile was the only man even close on the day. Djaja had also been released late, so he was sprinting for a podium behind!!
Ricardo held on easily, for his first win in his career so far. What a great day this was, a win in Qatar, and me securing the young rider Jersey and podium. Djaja wasn't so lucky, he sunk to 4th in a stupendously odd sprint, with only 60 riders surviving in the peleton.
What a result, Ricardo beating the world's best, and even our 2 big strong lead out men held on for decent placings. This is probably the greatest day in our team's short history.
Next I'll hopefully report up the last two days
Edited by The Hobbit on 18-12-2013 20:03
Unfortuantely that day was not to be repeated, at least for a week or so!
Mark Cavendish was unfazed showed he still had it on stage 7, where he reinvented the term 'dominant victory'. The team struggled on the last two stages, understandable after their Stirling effort on stage 6. Ricardo never featured highly again, and on stage 8, for the first time in Qatari history, a breakaway won. Admittedly only one of them escaped a rampaging Anaud Demare, but still, it counts hey?
Ricardo still got a nice souvenir to take away from the race though, he came 3rd in the points, ahead of some great opposition. He didn't do too well in GC due to our bad TTT though.
I came out here, but spent more time exploring the region than watching the races I'm afraid. I had to leave by the end anyway to head out to France, so Ricardo is providing us with the info from the GC stages.
Ricardo showed early on that Qatar wasn't a fluke, after a hard stage 1, and a stage 2 taken by punchers, (including Firmansyah and Travis) he was excelling on stage 3.
Unfortunately he had been forced to go early, and a 3%+ gradient was a tad bit too much and he was overtaken by more powerful Jurgen Roelandts, though he held on for 2nd
He wouldn't get many more chances though, as next were two GC stages. Firmansyah gave it a go at the foot of the climb.He took with him Nibali and Frooome, but in the end both were too strong, and he fell back.
He found himself in group 3 with Fuglsang, Roche and Van den Broeck.
Nibali won off the back of Firmansyah's attack.
Froome was second, and Travis finished with the other big names, in an astounding 6th!
The next stage was hilly, but with narrow roads, so Travis tried another attack.
Joined by Roche and Nibali, he made his way up to the break, and worked with the two of them to try and put time into Froome and Sky.
Froome joined on thanks to the Sky train, and then Roche and Nibali tried to salvage something left Travis behind.
Nibali won, Roche second.
Travis' group trundled along, and almost all dropped favourites joined on. He lost a half hearted sprint, which was one by some old breakaway members.
Despite this disappointment, Travis came into the final stage, a flat one, 7th in GC with the. Young riders jersey on his shoulders. Firmansyah was also excelling, in 9th.
This race brings back some good memories for me and Ricardo, unfortunately I am the only one returning, hoping to bring a more serious challenge for defending champion Voeckler. I have a strong support team, if support is the right word, riders like Tom O'Malley will probably be fully capable themselves.
And he wasted no time in proving that point. His attack can hardly be classed as 'late' but I don't think anyone fancied his chances.
Well, some people clearly did as he found himself a small group, well at least we weren't going to have to chase.
Despite help the small group of escapees were swallowed by the hungry pack.
Tom had several more efforts, like the above, but none of them pulled off. I can't blame him, I was like that in my first few pro races.
Then, with the finish approaching ever faster, it was my go. I went on the attack with old rival Tony Gallopin, hopefully this time we would be fighting it out again.
We caught some, and a few others joined us, and soon I was in a small group fighting it out in the final kms.
Unfortunately we were too late. In all the confusion, the original breakaway had been successful, we were still sprinting for time bonuses and to save time though.
I'd already done some pacemaking, and I payed the price. I was not good enough, and came 6th, but still, I beat Tony again!
I look forward to giving it another go next stage.
@Shonak: Yeah, but it's not a laptop, so good graphics come with the cost of letting other people use it
@Sutty: Yeah, it's decent, and some decent opposition here, but I'm sure he will want to improve on that...
I am very pleased with the performances of the young Travis to keep up there with some very strong climbers. Travis was very thankful to have the opportunity to lead to lead the team in Oman and is hoping his performance has showed his team manager that he is there to help the team. He would like to flcus his training on timetrials and his other obvious weaknesses.
LLS- Travis Burt Agent and Manager
big day for the team 
![imageshack.com/a/img593/3499/91qt.jpg[img]<br />
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With Nibali and Froome still uphead, it was Travis' turn to chance his arm.<br />
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[img]https://imageshack.com/a/img801/843/0rjl.jpg](https://imageshack.com/a/img593/3499/91qt.jpg[img]<br />
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With Nibali and Froome still uphead, it was Travis#39; turn to chance his arm.<br />
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[img]https://imageshack.com/a/img801/843/0rjl.jpg)
