Brad Williams- Professional Triathlete ARCHIVES: TdK Stage 5 Recap

26 Apr 12-

Last night was an interesting journey to make it all the way down here to the race start area. It started with what was suppose to be a 40 min train ride to get to the KTX station. Well 3 stops from the KTX the train decided to stop and make us get off. I had a very small window to get to the KTX station so I had to get a cab and have him drive me 10K to get to the KTX station on time. I ended up getting there on time and made the train, so one headache avoided. I met up with my buddy John on the train and we made it to Daegu about 10pm and still had about an hour drive via taxi. The cab driver we got was by far the worst we could have got. He would step on the gas and off the gas so it was very uncomfortable and then on top of that he couldn't work his GPS, and he might of been slightly blind. So on top of all of that he then decided to take a round about in the opposite direction until we started yelling at him. So what was suppose to be a 1 hour cab ride turned into a 2h15m cab ride. So that was the trip to get back down to the team, now onto the important part, the race!

The day started out with an extended neutral zone due to the poor road conditions from the previous days storm. The rain, wind and road conditions were so bad yesterday that they canceled the race. This didn't help my "fresh" legs as much as I had hoped since everyone else was fresh as well. I got a 20 minute warmup in which was a little short, but knowing the neutral zone extended I wasn't too worried. I stayed up at the front of the main group and we got to the first climb and I slowly dropped back trying to conserve energy for the second climb which would be a crucial part of the race. As we came to the bottom of the first climb the team that is leading the race launched an attack and I marked the guy. It ended up just being the 2 of us and we opened up a gap to 1m30s and didn't get caught until about 2k from the 2nd climb with a group of 4. At this time we had 6 guys, I sagged off the back of the group on the climb and just kept them in my sight. I had 2 of my teammates coming up the climb and they put some time into the field so at the top of the climb the 3 of us came together and descended together. At the bottom I worked hard to get the 3 of us back to the group but 2 guys had slowly slipped up the road.

We eventually came together as a group of 8, 3 from our team and only 1 from the lead team. I tried to get the group motivated as everyone but that 1 guy had a lot to gain, especially us. We were working well together except the 1 guy kept disrupting the group. There was a sprint point at 77k, and JY (Our GC, Young Rider, and Sprinter) said he wanted to go for it this morning. So with about 1k to go from the line I let it rip and we strung things out, I went for about 500m. Luckily we had it stacked perfectly to where JY was on my wheel and then Elmer was on his, so when I came off Elmer sat up and JY got a big gap and took the sprint points, which put him in the "BLUE" (more commonly known as the Green) Jersey

After the sprint the main group caught us and we stayed together all the way to the finish. JY had planned to attack with about 1k to go where it hit a small incline. He got a decent gap and ended up taking the Stage Win! This win gave him the Yellow Jersey, so it was a big day for our team. We now have all 4 Jersey's and are sitting 2nd in the Team GC, down by 23 seconds.

I enjoy the team concept a lot and feel that it is almost more rewarding that triathlon. Not every race is about ME, it is about the TEAM and today I was able to walk away from the race with a not so great placing but still had the feeling of accomplishment due to contributing to the TEAM.

Tomorrow is going to be 89K with a lot of rolling hills, so it is going to be another tough day especially since we have so much to defend. Looking forward to another beautiful day on the bike.

Link to ride on Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/7382724

Stage 1 Placing: 55th out of 153 (Time Gap: 0:25) -Stage 5 Individual Results

Stage 5 Team Placing: 3rd (Time Gap: 0:00)- Stage 5 Team Results

Overall Standings, as you can tell "STK" we STORCK are dominating, claiming all 4 Jersey's at the moment.

Today's course that we covered, right after that first hill is where I got in the 2 man break. Stayed away till right after the sprint line. We got caught by the right after that small climb before the 2nd big climb. We stayed away all the way till the sprint line and then the main group was back together.