I am writing this from Xining airport where I am waiting for my flight, the first of many hours of airport and flying time at will make up a long journey back to France. Yesterday we completed the ninth and final stage of the 2010 Tour of Qinghai lake and after 10 days of hard racing, challenging terrain, high altitudes and the various problems that arise from racing in the Asian continent, I am so relieved that it is finally over.

Stage 8 was a difficult 150km trip from Qilian to Qingshizui, with a stage profile that was predominately uphill and including an early Cat 3 climb and a HC climb to 3767m. After taking control and setting a solid tempo the previous day, the Iranian Tabriz Petrochemical Team again took to the front of the peleton to defend their hoard of leaders’ jerseys. Their tactics differed for this stage however and they set a torrid pace stringing the entire peleton out right from kilometre zero.

I myself was having a pretty average day in the bunch, pushing a big gear all day and riding way to far back in the field. By the time we hit the main climb of the day I was only too happy to sit up and join the gruppetto along with Ian and some of the nice guys from the American Jelly Belly team, cruising to the finish and coming in about 13 minutes down. Joe and Eric both climbed well and finished further ahead while James was unlucky to be dropped very early and rode over 120km solo but still managed to sneak inside the time cut.

Stage 9, the final stage, was a circuit race in down town Xining comprising of 12 laps of a 5km circuit.  The pace was intense from the start and we averaged over 50km/h for the race. I placed myself in a few early breaks but nothing stayed away. Joe had a great ride and spent a large time off the front too but his move was also brought back and with three laps to a bunch sprint was looking inevitable. On the last lap Ian and I took James to the front but soon after we got totally swamped by a wave of riders and James was unable to get to the front again, finishing with me somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Now, with the tour over I’ll be taking several weeks off to rest and recover. With two days in Beijing, a few days in Paris and finally a few weeks in Italy where I’ll be supporting the New Zealand Junior Track Team at the World Championships. Then it will be back into training and building towards my big goals of Southland in November and the National Champs in January.

Until then, thanks for reading.

Sam

www.samhorgan.com