Eventful Day for Recycling.co.uk at the Cinturon Tour in Majorca
20.04.07: The day started badly for the team when it was announced that yesterday’s hero Tom Diggle had contracted a stomach bug and had been up all night with sickness. Naturally Tom was very disappointed and spent the day in bed. When I spoke to John Herety after the stage he had spoken to Tom on the phone when he said he felt a little better. John was philosophical about this and said “it could have been anything from a door handle that contained a bug to something slightly off”. “These things happen in stage races”. Let’s hope this was an isolated incident. For readers interest a great deal of emphasis is spent whilst on team training camps preaching hygiene and care etc.
The race itself proved what everybody thought it would. It was brutal and really shook up the athletes. Chris Newton was involved in all of the action today and was in a break of about 30 riders that stayed away until they hit the climb of the Soller. The climb caused some riders to get dropped and whittled it down. After the Soller climb there is a short descent and the climb of the Puig Major starts. Chris was feeling good and set a fast tempo up the Puig. This shed a few more to leave just five riders who climbed together to the top. The five leaders got caught with 18 kms to go by a group of 25 riders including Ryan Bonser. Both of the recycling.co.uk riders attacked on run in but these came to nothing. Neither rider contested the final sprint as they were satisfied with their days work. The other recycling.co.uk boys were happy to finish the stage reasonably comfortably.
It looks like Adam Bonser is coming into climbing form. He gave his big brother Ryan (joke - Adam is 6’3” and the elder Ryan only a tiny 5’11”) a shock at the top of Soller. Ryan was filling his pockets from his feed bag when he felt a hand pushing him up the hill. Adam was giving him a helping hand - brotherly love eh??
All the riders except Tom (Sarah Heal the soigneur was taking him ‘suitable food’) were tucking into their evening meal when I spoke to John and all were in good spirits ready for the third stage tomorrow.
Live the dream boys!
Charlie Jackson
|
