Tour de l’Aude… 3 years doing the race and 3 wins!  Only this year, I had the opportunity to help my teammate, Susanne, win the jersey.

The early, important stages in the race were the prologue and the team time trial.  I was happy with my prologue.  Considering it was a completely flat, 5 min effort, I had a very good ride.  I was within 2 sec of Arndt and a few seconds in front of Worrack and the other GC contenders.  The team time trial on the third day was a very technical, 43km loop.  My team worked very well together.  Jean Paul’s plan of keeping everyone around helped us in the end.  Madi and I were the steady workhorses, while the others mixed in valuable contributions throughout.  It was a great strategy for the course, and we were much stronger as a whole than any one individual riding hard and alone all day.  And honestly, each member of the team and every watt they gave were necessary for us to win the race.

Yeah… the next day, was not a good day for me.  I lost the race, or my chance at it.  I picked a bad time to take my position in the peloton for granted and to look for a feed.  What rarely happens… happened.  The race never regrouped after being strung out and split on a long downhill section.  Give the German teams credit for tactically having a spy around and playing that situation to perfection.  They teamed up and drove the front group away, while two of my teammates and I chased hard to the finish.  It was not enough, though.  Funny, how the race can change in an instant and in a way that had nothing to do with the ability on the bike.  I was a little bit crushed… I let the team down, myself down, my coach… BUT, I didn’t quit, and I wouldn’t let my team quit, either.  We still had Susanne in position to win the race.  It would be very difficult, because the rider in yellow was incredibly strong and surrounded by a super team, but we still had some hard climbing days coming.  We would do everything we could to try and get the race back.

There were still 6 days of racing (7 stages) left, but really only 3 or 4 chances to put pressure on the leaders.  The first was the new stage in the Andorre region.  This stage took us up two HC (out of category) climbs.  We still had a long 30km of downhill to the finish after the second climb, but it would hopefully provide some opportunity.  After Loes rode the first part of the first climb on the front, I think I rode the last 5k of it and the entire 30k of the second climb on the front!  Mama mia.  The second climb turned out to be more gradual than expected.  However, we were still able to get a small selection of riders to play with over the top.  Susanne and I were two of eight or nine.  I tried attacking a few times on the way home, but Arndt was super good and able to keep track of all the important attacks on our way back. 

The next chance was the Friday stage which contained a category 3 climb followed by two cat 1 climbs.  We were hoping to make the yellow jersey have to work a little.  I attacked three times on the first cat 1 and then again on the second one.  Each time, I looked over my shoulder and could see the yellow chasing.  At the end of the stage, though, it was not enough to separate Susanne from the leaders.  But with another hard day coming and Susanne looking good, we were still hopeful.

The final chances came on Saturday, the double day. (Think about doing two stages on the 9th day of a 10 day stage race!)  Susanne rode very well in the morning stage...which was not flat.  There were two category 1 climbs packed in to less than 60km’s.  On the second climb, after some hard attacks that had put pressure on T-Mobile, Worrack thew down the hammer and split off with Arndt and Susanne.  It was good.  When Brandli and Doppman (who were still dangerous in GC) could not hold the wheel, I did not follow and risk closing the gap back to Susanne.   At the finish, Susanne was able to get 2nd place and take the 6 sec time bonus.  Arndt won the stage and Worrack was third.  Seconds… valuable seconds…

The afternoon stage was our last chance.  It started at the bottom of a 17km climb, followed with 45km’s of downhill to the finish.  Of course, we went hard from the bottom of the climb.  Bigla and Brandli were aggressive… Worrack a little bit too.  The race was split fast.  I sensed a moment when the yellow jersey was in difficulty, and when I could get away alone to put more pressure on.  I did.  And more importantly, as I rode alone to the top, behind me, Susanne was also able to separate herself from the yellow.  With Worrack still in between the two of us, though, I knew what the next step would be.  I had enough time to win the stage, but probably only enough to move into second in GC.  Both my team director and I understood that our best chance to win the race would be to wait for Susanne who was currently 2nd.  We wanted to win the race, the overall, so we gambled.  I stopped and waited for Susanne at the bottom of the technical portion of the downhill.  Meanwhile, 3rd place in GC went flying up the rode with her teammate.  Susanne came down with Brandli but without the yellow jersey.  Now, we had to get a minute back on the blue duo that went up the road and put enough time on the yellow behind us.  Unbelievable.  Susanne and I team time trialed for almost 40km’s downhill.  Thankfully, Brandli rode a little bit too, and the three of us managed to get within 15 seconds (or so) of Worrack and put more than a minute on the yellow behind.  We did it… Susanne had the yellow jersey!!!

Of course, there was still one more day, but Susanne was fantastic.  She followed everything.  There was no way she was going to let go, and Loes G, Iris, Luise, and I were going to do everything we could to help her keep it.

What a race?!  Once again, my Flexpoint team was fantastic.  Everybody contributed, and just like the previous two times, the third time was a huge team effort.  This year Loes G, Iris, Luise, Madi, Susanne, and I raced under the direction of Jean Paul van Poppel on our Stevens bikes that were dialed in all week by Benny (with a little help from Klas.)  How cool?  We keep the yellow in the team for one more year.

As soon as I get home from Montreal, I will post a CJ Farquharson photo gallery.  I also have some random videos taken by Benny and myself.  Soon.  Thanx!

Prologue Start

Team Time Trial Meeting