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Stage 6 - October 23: Wollogorang - Hell's Gate, 59 km
By Christi Valentine - Anderson
Magic Johnson
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When the first riders entered Hell's Gate, the temperatures had already reached 44 degrees and there was not a meter of shade on the course. There was only 59km to race today but that, of course, did not make it a day off for the real racers. The Dream Team's leader Elli used the short stage for recovery as did Moerman who seemed to be dealing better with the saddle soreness today than yesterday.
"Large" Erik Johnson had an outstanding ride today, finishing second and rolling over the line with an average of 28 kph. 28 kph in the rather deep sand and the heavy corrugations is amazingly quick after approximately 700km racing so far. Later in camp Large commented, "I have a whole new lease on life now! Of course he was clearly referring to the deep woods bug repellent he just put on, not the racing program.
Lars also told the tale of how the critical move came about. The team-mates of Hansen seemed to want to make a move and few rather irritating and pointless attacks were launched, requiring someone to follow. This annoyed Elli and he shot out an order to Johnson, "Larzt you go!" Simply put, it was time for the American to ride the rivet again on the second consecutive stage. This he did like a soldier. A big German rider went with Lars and eventually attacked the recovering Dream Team rider.
Deho and Van de Walle rode the course today but will not ride again until the Daintree stage as Deho seems unable to stop attacking and neutralized riders are not allowed to alter the outcome of the stage.
After stage five, Team Manager (me) and Elli were discussing the possibility of me riding the short 59km stage. Elli made his opinion painfully clear as he said, "Christi, there is no way you'll finish. These stages are hard." End of discussion. So the challenge was thrown down and at 9 am when the peloton rolled out, it contained Anderson.
Five kilometers into the stage I was traveling fine in a group of six riders. Having no issues holding a wheel and actually thinking I might not have to be the last rider into Hell's Gate after all. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. First an Austrian rider hit my back wheel and held the position for about 20 seconds. Grinding rubber to rubber I shot him a look which backed him off. Then it seemed like the sand got deeper and things were a bit doughy. My heartrate went up and it seemed strange as everyone else rolled along effortlessly. Finally, another Austrian rider came up next to me looked me square in the face and said, "You have a flat front wheel..." Implying that I maybe should have realized that.
So that being a good piece of intel, I changed the wheel. Unfortunately that was the last I saw of anyone on a bike and rode the rest of the stage solo. When I saw my team car in the distance I was still laughing and asked them for my Discman. I let Tom Curtain, a local Cowboy from the Northern Territory sing to me all the way to Hell's Gate. I made it with an average of 20 kph... Elli made no further comments.
