Yet lag

Not fast, not furious

So far I have watched Armageddon, Bad Boys, Speed, Con Air, Face Off, and The Rock, all for the first time and WOW they have not disappointed. Keep em comin

🤐

Arms are getting sore from pointing out all these potholes

KUALA KHUBU BHARU - IPOH

Another flat stage, which meant that it was going to be another drag race to the line for the sprinters.

That being said, it was a dogfight to get into the breakaway today. The peloton averaged close to 50kph for the first hour, attacking the shit out of each other and reeling breaks back in left and right. Eventually, a move of 6 got up the road containing Kent, but the gap was never let above 3 or so minutes.

Something I’ve noticed from the higher-level races I’ve done: on days like today when it’s clearly a dick-kicking contest to get into the day’s move, almost like clockwork, after an hour of racing, the break will go. Obviously, people recognize that races can’t be raced like that for the entire stage, so at some point someone has to call uncle, but it’s funny how on-the-dot it can be. Today, at an hour and two minutes into the race, the GC teams got to the front, and I even saw a rider throw his hands in the air and make the “time out” signal above his head. And that’s how the break was formed.

Cracks are starting to form in the upper-division teams, as word on the street was that squads like NTT and Bardiani-CSF, both fielding strong sprinters, were soliciting help from lower-tier continental teams to pick up the slack in the chase. There was a brief moment that it looked like the break actually had a chance of sticking, having about 1:30 going into 15 kilometers to go, but one hard dig up at the front from Delko and the ARA pro racing guys brought the gap down, boiling the stage down to a bunch kick.

Alex, Cormac, Alec, and I tried our best to jockey for position at the front once Kent was brought back to the group along with the other escapees. It’s scary business navigating the front of a field going close to 60kph, and I got lost in the bunch around 10km to go, but a quick and subtle lull in the field’s pace allowed me to float up the right side of a leftward-banking curve and deposit myself in front of Alex and Alec. At that point, I tried moving up with them on my wheel in order to solidify our position near the front, but quickly realized I was almost on the front inside 3km to go riding next to the ARA Pro Racing train. Looking back after hearing my name called, I wasn’t sure if I needed to move up or stay put, but saw that Alec and Alex had slotted into a train slightly to my left (remember, leftward-banking road) and were no longer on my wheel.

Having emptied what I had left and realized I’d probably do more harm than good getting in the way and potentially slowing the guys down, I pulled the chute and drifted back.

I’m eager to try and learn with the guys, and I know the attempt at positioning on my part left a lot to be desired. I wasn’t up where I needed to be early, and it’s odd because in this case it was hard to tell, given the quick, aforementioned lull in the pace, whether finally being at the front between 3 kilometers and 2 kilometers to go, which was where I was supposed to be, was on account of me actually knowing what I’m doing, versus pure dumb luck and timing.

Regardless, I think we are getting steadily more confident in our ability to compete and as the days progress and everyone becomes more and more fatigued, I think our chances are getting better and better.

Tomorrow: some hills!! Could be a sick day for the breakaway.

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Sam Boardman

Tour de Langkawi: Stage 5

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Yet lag

Not fast, not furious

So far I have watched Armageddon, Bad Boys, Speed, Con Air, Face Off, and The Rock, all for the first time and WOW they have not disappointed. Keep em comin

🤐

Arms are getting sore from pointing out all these potholes

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