Stage 6 – Vif – Davezieux      129km

Today was 43 degrees and really hot.  I actually felt good today when I woke up.  Maybe it was my coming of age!  We did a neutral 10km loop on some really narrow lanes that were barely wide enough for 5 bikes.  It was a tight squeeze and I was happy to get out onto the slightly wider roads when the race commenced.

The attacks started almost immediately.  As I felt good, I decided to have a dig and went hard after a sharp left hand corner.  I got a gap and was then quickly joined by Madelene of Nuernberg.  We worked well for a few km’s before we turned a corner and the road went up.  I hadn’t remembered any hills in the profile but this little beast was killing me.  I sat up and rode tempo as the peloton started passing me.  I had used up a lot of energy in that attack and was suffering up this climb.  I used the cars and stayed in touch with the peloton.  Alison Wright was very active and I joined her in a few moves.  Eventually the right combination happened that included a team mate Christine.

Today’s stage had some very different terrain to the alps we had just ridden.  We were now in amongst corn fields, lush forests and hills that didn’t hurt the same way as the mountains had.

Unfortunately, Christine was eventually dropped from the break and was soon caught by the main group.  After the energy she had expended in the break, combined with the heat, she struggled to stay with us, and was eventually back in the cars, where I have been on so many days of this tour.  Meredith dropped back to push her back to the peloton but got fined for physically assisting a team mate.  Personally, I don’t see much difference between letting a team mate sit behind to get a draft and pushing, but that’s the rule and we broke it.  I think it cost the team 100 Swiss Francs.

Given we only had 10km to the finish and we had a team mate high up in the overall general classification, it was more important that we stay near her to protect her and just let Christine ride to the finish.

The stage finished with a 5km climb.  I got dropped on this climb and came in a few minutes down but happy that I was feeling much stronger than earlier in the tour.

Funnily enough, we stayed at an airport hotel and although we listened to planes coming and going all night, we had air-conditioning and when it is 40 degrees that is more important than anything else.  This was the first time we had the pleasure of cool air and it was awesome to sleep without sweating.