Stage 7 updates here. Stage 7 Iquique to Uyuni The marathon begins. This is where the riders will bivvy away from their support and can only rely on each other. David is well placed to handle this gruelling section and he will not be trying to make up any places. He will be even more attentive to the bike and get it calmly through the ordeal. The special stage is 321km with the whole day just over 700km. The riders will get an early start as they head to Bolivia and up to 3,500m. Racing starts once on the plateaux. Navigation becomes crucial with many junctions on the route. We can expect a few riders to lose positions here. This section will also be tough on tyres, so team mates are likely to be cannibalised by the lead riders. The support team will get chance to breath, sleep and wash having overhauled the bike yesterday. The leaders get away at 15h40 CAT and are expected to arrive around 20h00. We probably have another stint to 21h00. The finish is close to the Bivvy. The group of seven has been joined by two riders for a while. #22 Pizzouto has been making up time after a disaster in Stage 2 and at his pace, could well be passed them by the Marathon Bivvy. #47 Patrao lost hours in the last sections of Stage 6 and is likely to be fit and ready to sprint back up the ranks. In terms of the seven, #48 Rios, #151 Engel and #36 Piatek gained time on David, but are within 22min, which can be wiped out with one incident. Piatek placed #14 at Rallye du Maroc and David was 26min behind him in P15. The other 3 of the seven lost time to David. #65 Jurgen vd Goorbergh is a Malle Moto rider who has been fading a bit and is just 37s ahead of David now. He is also on the podium in that class and would be silly to race the main class riders. #69 Payen and #46 Gomez dropped behind David in Stage 6. Discounting any retirements ahead of the group, David should pass vdGoorbergh for P42. Then Pizzolito should push him back to #43. It may take Patrao two stages to gain the 28min to push David back to P44. It will just take one retirement a day until the end for DR to break into the 30s. This stage we are NOT looking for any heroics. David needs to look after the bike so that it and it’s tyres get through 2 stages without the service team. RANK NO. RIDER............................DIFF FROM DR 39 36 JAKUB PIATEK(POL) -00:22:13 40 151 MILAN ENGEL (CZE) -00:17:21 41 48 FELIPE RIOS (PER) -00:12:00 42 65 JvdGOORBERGH (NLD) -00:00:37 43 103 DAVID REEVE 44 22 JAVIER PIZZOLITO (ARG) +00:04:42 45 69 HUGO PAYEN (FRA) +00:09:43 46 46 MAURICIO GOMEZ +00:18:20 47 47 MARIO PATRAO +00:28:30
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 05:26:10 +0000
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