Qinghai Lake: Stage 4

Bleh I don't have much to say about stage 4. I guess I'm starting to really feel the effects of altitude because I had zero top end speed today. I felt great just pedaling around at a steady 85% or whatever, felt like I could do whatever. But as soon as an intense effort was required of me, there was nothing there. Today, me sprinting was barely distinguishable from me riding tempo.

I made it over the climb alright by just riding steady in the second or third group and then catching back on the descent. But when I was required to come around dropped riders in the crosswind with 15km to go, I had nothing. All of a sudden the group was shattering, I couldn't close gaps, and I was in the third group on the road. Lost a few minutes by the finish.

On the bright side, Kiel was in the front group, finished second in the stage, and leapt up to 9th on GC! So while I wasn't of much use, it was a great day for Kiel and the team. Ninth on GC is much closer to where we'd like to be.

At our team meetings we are very upfront about discussing our likes, dislikes, and opinions on how we road the stage. The biggest complaint tonight came from Aldo... In his Slovenian accent, "Man, when we were all lined up, just starting the climb, I hear brrrrrrrrrrrp and then Joey's fart hit me in the face. Man, that fart took me up to about 5000 meters for 5 seconds, I could not breath!"