Photos: Craig Sheppard
The third stage was a 140km hilly road race. We had no misconceptions of this being an easy day.
With Mitch now sitting in 2nd GC we though we should give it a crack. About 40km in there was a 4k climb which was the KOM. The race split apart here dramatically. We ended up in the chase group hunting down about 5 guys up the road. We chased hard for about 20km and then someone went down on the front and took down Mitch and Eri Yonamine. I waited for them, but as Mitch was up there in GC the others smacked it. We then had to flog ourselves to catch back up to the group. We got there after a while, but had burnt a few matches.
At about the 100 mark Mitch, myself and the guy that won the KOM blew up big time and couldn’t hold the pace anymore. We struggled through the rest of the course together and lost a fair bit of time.
Eri Yonamine: Japanese national road and time trial champion. Can ride!
This guys took the corner too hot!
