Photo: © Starshot Design Agency

One Giant leap: Ben Atkins' Giant Tour 2004

From his desk job in Brighton to the Tour of Germany. It's quite a leap for Gran Fondo lover Ben Atkins, who is one of a very lucky group of journos riding the Giant Tour, a toned-down version of the pro event as a guest of Giant Bicycles. Over the course of the next seven days, Ben will live and breathe the life of a professional cyclist, so follow him (albeit with a touch of envy) as he embarks on the experience of a lifetime.

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Giant Tour 2004

Day 9 - Stage 7 - June 6: Leipzig - Leipzig, 92.5km

Found some!
Photo ©: Starshot Design

This is it, the hard work is done, we've made it to Paris! Well, Leipzig anyway! There's only 92.5km between us and the end of the race. It's been a really tough week, but I'm quite disappointed that it's over...

The bus rolled us into the middle of Leipzig and we got a last rub down and oil up from Rudy and took our usual place at the back of the grid. As the starter's gun went, the peloton moved off at its usual pace and we were sprinting from the off. The start of the course was through the streets following and crossing tram lines all over the place. Suddenly, three or four places in front of me, a rider got his front wheel stuck in a rail and he came down quite hard, the rider immediately behind him had nowhere to go and followed him down. I managed to get around the crash quite easily and no one else came down, but it served as a warning to everyone to take care of their line when crossing any tracks. I found myself bunny-hopping across rails on more than one occasion, but there were no more crashes that I saw.

The race was soon out of town, heading along the main roads into the countryside. It was at this point that Tom managed to break a couple of spokes - unfortunately he had to wait for the entire field to pass before he could get it replaced by a support car. Despite his pretty awesome power, he would never see the front again.

As we headed into the countryside, the roads took on a distinctly Flemish quality. They narrowed and twisted and turned between the fields and suddenly the surface turned to cobbles. I had planned to help Jo out today, to pay him back for all he's done for me this week, but he was having a pretty good day so I couldn't keep up with him. As Jo so obviously didn't need me, I decided to look after Taufig, who wasn't feeling at his best over the cobbles. I told him to stick to my wheel and began to tow him back up to the group in front of us. This set the pattern for most of the rest of the race, wherever I went, Taufig went with me, and we soon joined a group containing Michael. The three of us joined together and posed for a few last day pictures on one of the straighter sections where Daniel's car could get alongside.

Despite all the pain in our legs from the last week, we all felt pretty good. the course was almost completely flat so, once we had a wheel, the pace was pretty easy to follow. As we rounded a corner I saw the sign saying there was a sprint in 250 metres, I was in fourth wheel and felt pretty strong, and then I saw the crowds leaning on the barriers. This was too much of a temptation, so with around 150 to go I kicked around the three leaders and pulled a few lengths clear. As soon as I could see that I was clear I sat up and showboated my way across the line lapping up the cheers of the crowd. They didn't care that a couple of hundred riders had already passed either...

The pace stayed high all the way back into the city centre. Suddenly the tram lines were an issue again, but we'd all learned our lesson from the way out so everyone got round. I had been planning to contest the sprint, but my legs had really hurt when I went for it earlier, so I decided against it. As I did so I caught up with Philippe, who also felt that in this sized bunch, discretion was the better part of valour, and we cruised over the line congratulating each other for a week well done.

It was only after this point that we found out that Roderick had won. Not just a dash for 125th, he'd actually won the stage! He'd stayed out of trouble in the front group and he and William had manoeuvred themselves to the front for the slightly tricky finish. Unfortunately William had crashed, but seemed to shrug off the nasty-looking grazes down his left side and was able to join the team's euphoria over our team mate's success. Roderick races a fair bit in Holland, but this was his first ever win, and what a way to do it, in front of a pretty large crowd that had gathered to see the pro race later on.

The rest of the day was spent watching the finish of the pro race, for once we didn't have a transfer to make. Once William had out the bikes away for one last time, we returned to the same hotel to get showered and changed, then headed out to the post-Deutschland Tour party and let our hair down. Our days of pretending to be pros were now over, and we could return to what we know best, eating and drinking too much...

Best not go too mad though, I've got to ride Paris - Roubaix next weekend!

Photography

Images by Starshot Design Agency

• Pinning the numbers on, one last time
• Dirk Spiers gets mounted up
• Rudy's work here is done...
• Pretty carbon weave, I'm gonna miss you.
• Tom's awesome power just couldn't get him back to the front after his spokes broke.
• Dirk keeps hydrated
• Is this Germany, or France?
• Last day of term...
• Mind those tram lines!
• Roderick won, and is pretty happy about that!
• Dirk Schlickmann's tough week is over
• The Giant Media Team - (L to R) Franck, Javier, Tom, Phillipe, Michael, Taufig, Roderick, Me, Rudy, William, Dirk, Jo. Rene is laying in front, the other Dirk is not pictured
• Yeah, yeah, I know, diet starts tomorrow!
• Roderick milks the applause!
• Rene leads the singing
• A well-earned beer!
• Roderick celebrates with a bottle of former East German champagne
• Still can't wipe that smile off Franck's face
• Did Taufig really drink all those? (no)
• Found some! This seems to have come full circle!