By Cam Bayly ??@cameronbayly T-E-R-E-N-G-G-A-N-U, I think I repeated that maybe 1000 times today. It’s fair to say I was getting a little bored sitting lined out behind the same person reading the name at the bottom of their numbers. ?It first caught my eye as I have heard the name before but didn’t realise it was spelt that way. ?So of course I spelt it out so many times that I don’t think I could ever forget it again. The race wasn’t always like this, it was actually the longest it has been so far before a break went. It took 70km completed in under 1 hr 20 minutes before a break was let go by the peloton. ?It was a very agressive and fast start, a lot of the big teams were more agressive than usual, but nothing stuck until 70kms in when a Europcar rider went and only one other followed. ?I don’t think this was quite what the Europcar rider had planned, considering he is the team sprinter, so after only a short time in the break he decided to sit up and wait for the peloton, leaving one lone rider all by himself. We cruised along for a while, but knowing there was only one rider up the road and 2 sprints left to contend with Thomas in the points jersey, we knew we had to do something. ?Just before the feedzone, an Indonesian and a Chinese rider attacked, no one thought anything of it and the bunch let them go. But straight after Eric and Thomas launched a big two up attack to bridge to the other 2 riders. ?This caused a reaction in the bunch and they started chasing, although they couldn’t bring them back before the sprint. ?After the sprint the bunch sat up and let the gap to the break increase, so Thomas and Eric decided they would work to stay away for the next sprint another 80km later. ?The break caught the lone rider pretty quickly and in the end Thomas was able to take 1st in the next sprint, before sitting up when the time gap decreased. While they were up the road hurting, I was sitting on a wheel spelling Terengganu. At least I got to go back to the car a few times to get some bottles. ?It still wasn’t an easy ride, it was a solid pace, but I definitely wasn’t going as hard as the guys out front. ?With 20km to go we were all back together and all hovering around Rico, giving him a hand when needed, making sure he didn’t have to touch the wind once until 150m to go. ?Rico is a little different to some sprinters, he doesn’t need a full lead out, he just wants someone by him in case he gets caught out, he’d prefer to find his way through the middle of the bunch. ?So sometimes just following him is one hard task, he has got to be one of the most skilled people I have seen who can be at the back of the peloton in one second and the next magically be up the front at the perfect moment. ?So sometimes I feel a little useless, because really he doesn’t need much help, but on the rare occasion he does I am there to give him that hand. Today was one of those days where he didn’t need one person in the final, he magically appeared at the front of the bunch ready to go at 500m to go. ?The only problem, he got a flat and had to sit up and watch the sprint take place right in front of him. ?While it was a bit frustrating and disappointing for Rico, we still had something to cheer about, as our non sprinter Thomas had held onto the sprinters jersey for another day by only 1 point! Tomorrow is the longest stage of this tour at 230km, the profile looks like its rolling all day, although the profiles have been known to look a little over exagerated in the race book. The KOM’s today looked quite big on the profile, but in actual fact they were so small that the KOM start sign was after the KOM 500m to go sign, first time I’ve ever seen that! Tomorrow will be a long day favouring the sprinters, but you can never predict anything, how ever the outcome we’re prepared. Until tomorrow! Cam
