Well another day another stage.  We had our hopes up for a good day, having identified that the finish at the top of the Crown Terraces would be as close as anything that might suit Floyd, even though the final climb is only 2 kms long.

We had an hour long drive from Invercargill to Lumsden but it was a happy crew reciting Monty Python and the Life of Brian and listening to an entertaining story from Scott involving grizzly bears, tazers, Mohawk haircuts (on the bears) and spray-painting (the bears).  The sun was shining at Lumsden and we got there early enough to get ourselves properly organised bikes assembled (a couple of clusters swapped over, food bags and spare water bottles in Jules’ car, wheels in the wheel wagons and the lads on their bikes).

There was a plan for the day, hatched the night before but, as they say, “the best laid plans of mice and men....”.  The pace was very fast but not as stupid as it had been in the previous days, as the first intermediate sprint wasn’t until the 13 km mark with the first KOM another 7 kms further on.  Everyone stayed together until the KOM and then echelons started forming in the cross winds.   All of the team got on the front and tried to get a group established with Floyd in it.  Unfortunately, Heath Blackgrove followed Floyd and so the rest of the contenders’ teams closed it down.   Nico, Jamie and Grover continued to cover attacks but eventually a strong group of about half a dozen got away and started to distance the main bunch, stretching their lead out to about a minute. 

This group  came back together not long afterwards but by the 50 km mark, a more serious group including Aaron Strong and Jeremy Yates had managed to establish a good gap.   We didn’t think the group would be allowed to stay away because it contained three riders in the top 10 on GC.  But stay away it did and apparently (I say apparently because were in the convoy getting very irregular updates on the Tour radio) the group worked very well together. 

In fact this is one of the frustrations of being in the convoy sometimes up to a kilometre behind the riders, especially a break goes and the 1st commissaire’s car follows the break.  We get out of radio range quickly and have to rely on messages being relayed by other team cars.  In the end I used my iPhone to read the official Tour of Southland commentary, as it mean no static and the news often came back faster than the Tour Radio “updates”.

Being back in the convoy also meant that I didn’t know what our riders were doing or how they were feeling.  When I saw a rider slip off the back I couldn’t tell whether he just wasn’t up to the task or whether he had been working and had finally let go.  It was only after the stage finish when I quizzed each rider that I found out what had happened and was able to compile this report.  Suffice to say that everyone worked very hard for the first 40 kms covering or trying to get into breaks.  But there is only so much that one person can do.

Having done a lot of pulls on the front Grover went to the back of the bunch, only to find that the riders in front had let a wheel go and, rather than cooperate to form an echelon, they  battled in single file trying to get back onto the group in front.  The result was that the gap just got bigger and so Grover eased off with JD and rode at their own pace to the finish.

Back in the main bunch Nico, Jamie and Floyd tried to get a chase group going but nobody seemed to want or be able to cooperate and the gap opened up to over 3 minutes.  When feeding time came round we were driving up and down the Devil’s Staircase, which made for an interesting challenge in terms of handing out bottles at 50+ kph.   Floyd came back for a bottle and took bottles back for Jamie and Nico.  How’s that for team work from a humble man?

The bunch continued to ride fairly smoothly along the lake side until Frankton  but, once they hit Dalefield Hill, the bunch splintered.  Nico and Jamie realised their chase was over and rode at their own pace to the finish.  After what seemed a very long time the commissaire finally let us get past the small groups dotted along the road, so that we could get back  to the main bunch with Floyd in it.

Up front the lead group had been whittled down to 4 and then 3 as Yates attacked with about 8 kms to go.  He won the stage from Aaron and Peter Latham but Jack Bauer rode strongly on the last climb to keep his  yellow jersey for another day.

Floyd was in the same group as Jack but when everyone started going ballistic on the Crown Terraces, he decided there was  little point in racing for 10th place and paced himself easily up the 2km climb to finish 29th at 3.47.

Nico and Jamie were next to come in at 8.35 and 11.03, with Grover at 27.05 and JD at 27.44.  The day’s stage meant that Floyd moved up 7 places on GC to 29th, Nico was at 51st, , Jamie at 58th, Grover 73rd  and JD 100th.

After catching up with supporters, sponsors and friends in the field past the finish line, we decamped to Jamie’s’ folks’ place in Kelvin Heights overlooking Lake Wakatipu for a big feed,  rehydration and massages.  Then around 6pm we left sunny Queenstown for a two hour drive away back to the rain and wind of Invercargill and the evening jobs of cleaning and repairing bikes, doing laundry and making up race food and drinks for the next day’s stage to Te Anau.