Tour de Panama Stage 5- The grand finale

Tour de Panama Stage 4- Extra wet edging to the limit..

Tour de Panama Stage 3 - War zone

Tour de Panama Stage 2 - Gravel... that was some bullshit.

Tour de Panama Stage 1 - Crash and chase

Longest stage of the tour. It was a carbon copy of a stage that we did last year which was an advantage for Gabe and I. I knew exactly where the hills were and how much I was going to suffer. The key difference was weather. It was a pouring down hard as we were getting ready which delayed the start. We rolled out after the rain eased however it was still raining. Roads were soaked and there was some flooding on the neutral rollout. Somebody crashed while trying to ride around a section of road that was flooded. We rode over the Atlantic bridge for the 1st time neutral. We would have to ride over it 2 more times at the end of the stage. The 1st 20km of the stage were rough for me. The "neutral" climb was about a 4 min 300-350watt effort. Followed by rolling hills in pouring rain. Really hard short climbs at 16 and 18km had me on my limit just to stay in the field. Fortunately thats where the breakaway formed and things settled down. I got to recover a bit and just sat in. Visibility was horrible because of the rain but fortunately the roads here were great. The rain made everyone more cautious so there were no crashes. Senafront took control of the front of race and pulled the whole time. The hardest mid course climb was at the 40km mark and I was able to ride at the edge of my limit to stay in the field. After that I knew I should be able to get through the rest of the stage until the final climbs over the Atlantic bridge. We reached the turn around point and headed back the same way we came. We were probably only about 45 seconds behind the breakaway. The way back was a little bit more tame over the climbs and the rain had eased off to just spotty showers. Senafront timed their chase to perfection. They caught the break just before the Atlantic bridge. I had enough energy to make one last appearance at front to see if I could help Jade on the climb. But as soon as I got up there the attacks started and the field went nuclear... Got dropped on the climb about 3/4 of the way up. Then aero tucked the descent and caught back on to the main field. On the turn around I got dropped almost immediately going up again. Rode with one other dropped rider to the top as the caravan started passing us. Once we crested we were probably about 6-7 cars back of a chase group in front. On the descent Our team car rolled up beside me to "pass". I looked over and locked eyes with Nicolas and understood the assignment. Jumped in the draft and Gus gunned down the descent and slingshot me up to about car 3 where he slotted in. I was able to tuck in and jump from car to car all the way to the back of the group. It was a group of about 20 riders that had been dropped from the field and out of contention for the stage. With about 10km's of flat to the finish the group was riding weird like they wanted to race instead of chase. 3 guys attacked from our group to try to get up the road. Torin just rode to the front and pulled our group for about 8km before pulling them back. I was 4th wheel and just followed the next attack which launched at 1km to go. Used that as a lead out and opened up my sprint at 500m and took it. If the guys wanna race; then lets race.. I wasn't going to let Torin do that 8km pull and not dunk on the sprint. Jade was able make the lead group up the final climbs on the bridge. He finished 6th on the stage which ended up being a smaller bunch sprint. Unfortunately the U23 leader was in the same group so time gaps remain the same. Awesome ride by Jade on a really tough stage. Tomorrow is the final flat sprint stage on the Panama city causeway. 

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Randy Lee

Tour de Panama Stage 4- Extra wet edging to the limit..

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Tour de Panama Stage 5- The grand finale

Tour de Panama Stage 4- Extra wet edging to the limit..

Tour de Panama Stage 3 - War zone

Tour de Panama Stage 2 - Gravel... that was some bullshit.

Tour de Panama Stage 1 - Crash and chase

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