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Part Two: Pat Tells about his experience in the Tour of Berlin with Cobbles, Rain, Cobbles and well Rain!

Hey Guys.. and Girls,
Here is the second instalment of my diary from the recent trip to Europe with the Under 21 team. I dont know how many of you actually read this but i hope that you enjoy the read.

Our first race for the trip is the Tour of Berlin. Berlin is a 12hr drive from Castronno(AiS Base), a lot of PSP action and sleeping goes on between stops at AutoGrills for meals, we stopped twice on the way there , that sad face speaks for everyone involved!!! One thing that must be mentioned is the food at this tour was TERRIBLE, some nights, some of us would only have a mouthful or two of dinner because it was so bad. Now onto the results.

Stage 1 – May 25: Rund um Altlandsberg, 114.1km
This stage was shortened to 114.1km after a massive Storm blew over the race in a matter of minutes making anything further than 30metres infront of you impossible to see.

Today would have its ups and downs, to the extreme. Course was completely flat with four sections of cobbles covering a total distance of 4 kms per lap for 12 laps. After 5 laps i suffered my first puncture, as i head back to the team car i see team mates nic walker and luke cridland at the back of the field i say “What are you guys doing back here???”, they reply similtaneously “Nic crashed bad”, “I crashed bad”(later we would see that nic had actually fractured his wrist in 4 places). So team car changes the wheel and gets me back on just in time for the 800m cobble section taking me under the start/finish banner. Little did i know my rear wheel was hitting both sides of the brakes(the wheel was deans and an Italian had face planted into it 2 laps earlier). So back to the team car for another wheel change, by the time i get back to the group there is around 100riders left, visibilty is poor and we have windsor, king and josefski in most moves. 12 and final lap rain is belting
down, through a corner group of 30 odd slips off the front, they would stay away to the finish, josefski in the group, dean and i in group 10metres off but put @21secs back. King struck with bad luck and broken chain comes in with other guys.
Josefski @4secs, Dean and i @21secs, Cridland, King and Walker @4.06mins.

Stage 2 – May 26: Rund um Rudow, 150km
Today was uneventful as such, the group averaged over 44km/h, Nic didnt start today after xrays.
The Team was in every move for the day accept the one that stuck, unfortunate but a good lesson learnt, if the speed is that high the breaks are hard to establish. group of 14 stay away and win by 29secs, josefski, king, windsor and myself in the group, cridland@3.46mins

Stage 3 – May 27: Lehnitz-Summt-Lehnetz ITT, 16.4km
Flat time trial for a morning stage, just what you need after two days in the rain and circuits chock-a-block with cobbles. Josefski with the Time trial Bike would be looking to secure a good GC result, rest of the team riding clip ons would be looking to keep their losses to a minimum.
Winners time was 20.39.00 average spd(47.651 km/h)
Our results were: Josefski@1.03min, Shaw@1.43min, King@1.50min, Windsor@2.32min, Cridland@3.13min.

Stage 4 – May 27: Rund in Birkenweder, 122km
Another circuit race today and after a time trial the legs feeling a little delicate. Two punctures again today one in the 2nd last lap, after the change i endevoured to get to the front as quick as possible the best place to move up on this 12km circuit was on the rough 2.4kms section of cobbles. On this exact section ending just 3kms from the finish would be were myself and the other guys would make our move for the front on the last lap. The sprint was hectic but strung out after an extremely fast section over the cobbles, today we would have 3 in the top 25. King in 21st, Cridland in 19th and myself in 15th. We all finish @sametime as winner today.

Stage 5 – May 28: Berlin-Premnitz-Berlin , 171.6km
This stage ended up being 195.8kms!!! completely flat and extremely fast this stage had a lot of side wind sections. Dean and I were in 4 breaks before the 30kms into the stage, however, they all were unsuccessful. after the 4th break i started to get stomach cramps, worst feeling ever, just want to throw up, quick trip back to race doctor, he gives me a syrup, drink it and 5mins later anything eaten in last two days is now on the road and the bunch is riding into the distance im now back at team car 15, still with crazy cramps, fight my way back up to the race doctor and he gives me a bannana… eat that… its now 85kms into the stage and the pain is still there, i have been on and off the bunch atleast 15times. and with 10kms to go morale is at a super low. At 100kms group has toilet stop, this releives me of the pain and quickly i find comfort in the company of the other team mates, just in time to watch a german run himself off the road, down a ditch and flip his bike…
everyone in the peleton laughing, not knowing if he has broken his kneck or is safe! this reminds me that no matter how bad you are feeling someone is always worse or in the process of becoming worse. Stage ends in bunch kick, pace too high for me after 190kms so i ride in solo, the other guys tusseling for a potention stage result, however Dean is the only one the can get through the turmoil and towards the front for the sprint, he does his best with his chances and runs 13th in the stage.

GC TOUR: 15th Josefski @ 1.16mins, 39th Shaw @ 2.45mins, 46th Windsor @ 3.20mins, 62nd King @ 6.05mins, 76th Cridland @ 10.45mins.

Hope this informs you all, Next Part will be report on two one day races from Italy
De Gasperi and Coppa della Pace

Thanks for reading.

Photos:
(Click the image to enlarge)