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Stage 3 - October 20: Nathan River - Borroloola, 177 km
By Christi Valentine - Anderson
Not wheel good...
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Three of the five wheels fell off the Gatorade Dream team on this stage from Butterfly Springs to Borroloola...
The stage started with the typical rolling alterations to the race manual. Race organizer announced that the support vehicles would transport the cyclists to the 40 km point to begin the stage. Thus it was meant to take the pressure off the dying peloton. Alas, the riders stood still at the 40km point for 90 minutes, waiting for the race to begin as the sun rose ever higher in the sky. As the sun rose so did a few tempers and the racers became increasingly agitated and ready to roll. By 11:00am, the race had started and it was understood that it would be a controlled roll out for the first 20 kilometres.
After just a couple of km, James Grant went away up the road. Elli responded quickly and gave chase. He told the Queenslander that it was under control, but it made no difference. So off they went with Elli clearly planning to get away from Adam Hansen and using his team-mate Grant to facilitate the break. Then the race organizer Gerhard Shoembacher went to the pair of echappes and neutralized this move. Elli blew his top, big time, and began a colourful verbal assault on the organizer who seems to be backing Hansen in this race through the desert. The Dream Team will pay a $300 fine for threatening the man.
At the first feed, Elli actually climbed off the bike he was so angry and mentioned something about getting out of this forsaken sauna, but then calmed and got back on. Van de Walle waited for Elli and took him straight to the front group and subsequently stopped after his big efforts thus far in the second feed. Van de Walle's liver was giving him great pain and the doctor thought it was imprudent to continue. He may race again for the second half of this extremely long event.
Marzio Deho was the second casualty of the stage. Deho has lost the ability to sit properly on his bike saddle and could not stand for the entire 140km stage. His final comments as he stood under the shade of a tiny tree looking for a lift to the finish was something about corrugations and the fact that Mauro Bettin had not mentioned anything to him about the millions of corrugations that would pummel his backside into its current purple condition. Deho will restart in the Daintree when he can use his technical talents and actually enjoy the racing.
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The Dream Team's American, Lars - Erik Johnson, had yet another gruelling day, but was making his own race. When the support crew poured cool water over him in the second feed, he began to convulse. Van de Walle's wife Nathalie was worried about the convulsions, but was reassured by Anderson that it was normal for this rider and that he would be fine. And he was fine until kilometre 94 when he punctured.
With Slime spewing out of his rear wheel, the tall cyclist continued to ride until he found some shade. He then tried his CO2 cartrige which also contained a clogging agent, and it promptly exploded the cluggy goo all over him, but not before it completely clogged the valve. Still keen to be in this event, he began picking the stuff out of the valve until he had a pin hole to pump up his tyre through. With his tiny hand pump the big guy was going hard at it with only the smallest volume actually getting into the tyre.
This die-hard cyclist achieved little in this mode, but kept at it. At approx 35 psi, he threw a leg over; alas, the sealant failed and 15 meters down the dust track he was on his knees again. This time "Large", as he is called, pulled out his Leatherman (not a lightweight tool) to unscrew the valve and ram it back up through the rim.
Out of the abyss, a man appeared with a real full sized pump and the American got a whopping 40 psi into the repaired tyre. Sometimes, however, it is simply not meant to be and 1km down the road the tyre blew. The man was beaten at this point and climbed into the next passing vehicle. That was number three out of contention for the general classification.
Moerman restarted the stage and finished quite comfortably.
Elli now carries our flag in the overall...
