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Tour de’l Abitbi Day 3. Louis Wright (Canada trip) |
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Written by Sandra Ginever
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Sunday, 25 July 2010 00:00 |
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The first part of this is from Louis & the 2nd part is a report from one of the riders on Louis' team ... Below that are the reports you have probably already seen... But they may as well be linked together! Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written in a while as I am very busy and the connection here is bad so i keep on having to re-write emails.
The tt was quite good, i finished 11th only 4th kiwi but we had 4 riders in the top 10 in the tt. I probably rode too hard the day before but im 11th on gc and not far off the next few. (the day after the tt)
Man-o-man it was carnage today!! Riders falling all over the place, I am glad I managed to stay upright. I am not sure where I am now maybe top 10 on gc ( out of 150 starters ). Scott is a few sec infront of me and James Oram is 30sec. There's still plenty of racing to go (2 days) so i'll just race smart, and ride hard!
thanks for all of your emails guys and i hope you are all well. Tour de’l Abitbi Day 3. It was an early start for some of the team on Thursday morning. The day we had all been stressing about for months had arrived. The individual time trial. The time trial started 80m underground in a gold mine. The first part of the time trial involved riding out of the mine. It was dark; the ceiling was low, and the gradient around 17%. Riders couldn’t stand as the ground was muddy and their back wheels would slide out. The rest of the course was technical with many corners, 2 power climbs, and false flats. Nick Hand went off in the first wave of riders and was the fastest time for that wave. This time ended up 9th overall. Nick Sutton was next, and gave the prime a good nudge for fasted time out of the mine. James Oram went next, and did a flying time trial, with him finishing 4th. Dion Smith did a solid time trial and finished 19th. Louis Wright did a quick time, finishing inside the top 10. Scot Creighton was the last to go and finished an impressive 8th. The time trial was a success for the young New Zealand team, who had 4 riders in the top 10 on GC afterwards, and the team moving into 3rd on teams GC, and the Young Leaders jersey remaining in the team with it being passed onto James Oram. The afternoon stage was a pancake flat 52km. It was expected to be a quiet stage, but in order for the NZ team to move up on teams GC, it was important we gained the time bonus sprint 14km into the stage. Nick Hand attacked 4km into the stage. Slowly, other riders bridged across, until an 11 rider group was formed. Just before the time bonus sprint, Hand attacked, and won it. The group worked together well, and the gap opened out to 50 seconds, before being brought back to within 12 seconds of the bunch. Hand attacked again, the break chased and the gap slowly opened up to 35 seconds again with 5km remaining. The rest of the NZ team helped the break out but disrupting the chase of the other teams back in the main bunch. Nick Hand managed to finish 5th at the finish, which moved him up into 4th on GC. The NZ team remained in 3rd on teams GC. It was a very successful day for the team, with 5 top 10 finishes. The team ended the day with Nick Hand in 4th overall, James Oram 6th, Scot Creighton 11th, Louis Wright 12th, and Dion Smith in 23rd. James Oram now holds the Young Leaders Jersey, and Nick Sutton retained the King of the Mountains jersey. The team remains in 3rd on teams GC. By Nick Hand
HI everyone
sorry about this late reply but it has been all go and we finished our race yesterday at 8pm and i've been itching to tell u how i went.
The race couldn't have gone much better to be honest.
It was a pretty much flat 95k course with 3 laps of a fast fast fsat finishing circuit at the end.
I could feel the bunch slowing at the 25k mark and counter attacked to get off the front of the main peleton by myself. While i was away solo I won 2 sprint primes; one worth 250 canadian (300 NZ $) and the other a 3 sec bonus!!!! After 25km of smashing it (the time gap went out to 1min and 5 secs at one point!) they hauled me in but i was still pretty pleased with myself. From then on I sat in and MATE... those 3 laps in the town centre were so so fast! I hung in with the front group and finished safely. The manager (Ken) and the rest of the team were stoked about my solo effort and the time I gained from the bonus now places me 5th overall!
I'm really wrapped about it all and im gona keep believing in myself.
I'll update you all as soon as i can tomorrow about todays 90 odd k race, but it will be hard because we have a tt tomorrow morning.
Cheers
Louis
Also below is a explanation document from BikeNZ
Bike NZ U19 men Tour De L’Abitibi campaign 2010 update #3 The first stage of the 2010 Tour De L’Abitibi kicked off on Tuesday the 20th of July in the quaint village of preissac, ninety five kilometres from the finish line in the city of Val-d’or. One hundred and fifty riders rolled up to the start line with the six kiwis present and correct right on the start line. Our position proved to be crucial because within the first few kilometres havoc broke loose as a number of crashes culled out one quarter of the competition. Nick Sutton joined six others off the front of the peloton and gained 2nd and 1st place in the two hill climb sprints which gave him the lead in the King of the Mountain competition. The hot pace of the main bunch meant Nicks break was brought in around the 20km mark, a few counters followed and Louis Wright managed to make a solo break. Louis’ time gap went out to a maximum of one minute and he collected two sprint primes; one worth $250 Canadian and the other a 3 second time bonus. His 20km effort took its toll and he was brought back to the main field 50km into the race where Dion Smith snatched a perfect opportunity to counter but the opposition were quick to learn their lesson as his gap only went out to 17 seconds before he was swallowed back up. Several small attacks followed throughout the rest of the race as we flew down the long drag to Val-d’or. The riders arrived in the City to complete 3 laps of the 3.3km finishing circuit. The bunch arrived in town together and were greeted with a huge crowd of locals, cheering the riders down the finishing straight. The pace over the next 3 laps was ever so hot but the team stayed cool, calm and collected and we all finished safely in the front pack with Dion Smith crossing the line in a credible 6th position. In conclusion the race couldn’t have gone better with Dion Smith now in the young leaders jersey, Nick Sutton wearing the King of the Mountains jersey and Louis Wright highest on GC at 5th place. Well done boys!
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Last Updated on Sunday, 25 July 2010 22:01 |