Malta - Stage 3, Bike Ride and Flight

The final stage of the Tour ta Malta was on the island next to Malta, Gozo.

A early start was on the program, with the buses leaving to the ferry port picking us up at 6am. Breakfast was served especially for the cyclists at 5am (4am english time!) in the headquarters – this included a selection of bread and jam, which was rather delightful.

At 5:30, with the sun slowly rising, the bikes where loaded onto a truck, luckily covered with lots and lots of blankets. Half a hour later, at the expected leaving time, there was no sign of a bus. We soon got news that the bus was delayed (probably the bus driver still asleep!!), but after a matter of 20minutes they arrived, and we were off for the 50minute bus journey, then a 20minute ferry journey.

After arriving on Gozo, the sun was out shining. After a quick picture or two of everyone together and the boat for the sponsors, the journey continued with a 40 minute ride up hill to the start/finish area.

The circuit was a 4.5km lap with a 2km hill in, which you had to go up, do a lap round a few houses and a windmill then go back down. The corners on the hill where tight, and very slippery with riders sliding off like it was ice, but with temperatures around 27 degrees.

Arriving at the circuit with a hour to spare, I took the time to do a good warm up, and found the legs were feeling good, better then the previous stages. With the decent on the first part of the circuit, the Italians where worried about the slippery chicane corners, and told everyone to have a non-official neutralised start. Soon after, I began going with the attacks, but on the first ascent of the climb my legs weren't feeling as good as they had in the warm up, and everything soon came back together again. The following lap on the climb the leader Pizzo put the pressure on the front like a beast, splitting the peleton into many little groups, luckily I was near the front and managed to stay in the front split, dispite a local rider leaving a gap right infront of me. A few groups came together to make a larger front group.

With a few attacks going then getting caught, riders began getting tired and the front group ended up having 10 riders, including me, the leader and the winner from the previous stage, who was a giant, a Cipollini lookalike and an ex world champion.

6 laps to go, the group sat up and I saw a chance, managing to get a gap of about 30 seconds, soon joined by the eventual stage winner Francesco Guccioni. 2 laps later our attempt had failed and we got caught. With my legs still feeling quite fresh, even after the recent attack, and thinking that the Italians (who had 4 in the lead group) were controlling it well, I thought it was not a good idea to attack, and it would be best to save my self for the last sprint up the “Poggio”. 2 laps to go, Guccioni attacked, and managed to solo to the finish alone.

The last few times up was steady, but a fight for positions. Managing to get the wheel of the Cippolini lookalike was my main aim, seeing as the stage he won was from a sprint from 8, similar to this stage.

Turning the last bend with 300m to go, I got his wheel but was not powerful enough to go past him ending up 4th in the sprint.

After the race, they put down on the results 6th, which is very annoying seeing as I got 5th. Without the use of cameras in Malta, they have to do it all by eye and hand, getting a few minor mistakes but the results got changed soon enough. I also ended up 6th on GC and first under 23.
After the stage, I ended up riding back doing about another 40-50km with a few other riders.

Bike ride

The last day wasn't a stage, it was just a 1 hour bike ride with the locals. The turn out was one of the biggest that the Tour Ta Malta had ever had, with more then 200 riders on the 28km loop. Soon after was the presentations, and then I joined the Chevin Bang & Olufsen team for another 60km loosen up.

Flight Back

The flight back was eventful. With everything packed we loaded it into the “Team Greens” team van for the trip to the airport. Arriving with 2 hours till the flight begins, we got our boarding tickets and took the bikes to the oversize baggage place. 30Minutes later a woman finally came to scan them, not even taking a look at the screen. Walking through the overpriced duty free we saw that our flight was delayed 1 hours 30, this was the least of our problems. When arriving at the gate, and after the 1 hour 30, we got told another hour, then another, then another, till it ended up being 8 hours delay. This was all because of a problem with the hydrolic system on the plane, then we found out that the pilot had run out of flying hours because it took so long! So EasyJet kindly put us in a 5 star hotel for the night with buffet dinner (luckily with loads of pasta!) and breakfast.

The hotel room had a huge kingsize bed with a million pillows, there was 2 bathrooms, a hallway, 2 balcony's and a lounge.

Anyway the flight left with only 30minute delay the following day and a traffic-free journey home even through the Dartford tunnel.

Tomorrow i'm off to Belgium for a lactate test and another weekends racing.