Stage 3                                   Tumut to Talbingo                                                  50.5 kms

Start 1.00pm

We finished stage 2 this morning at 11.15am and had only an 1hr 45min to recover for the next stage.  The weather was heating up and although the stage was only 50km it had a few tough climbs to test out the tired legs.

As we headed out of Tumut, Sara Carrigan jumped away.  The peleton didn’t react and watched her disappear as she was not a threat to the top GC riders.  About 5km into the race, I decided to try and bridge across to Sara as there is a greater chance of an escape working with 2 riders.  The peleton initially let me go and I rode about 5km before I saw the Saturn train on the chase and I was quickly swallowed up by the peleton.  I decided to stay in the peleton for the 1^st KOM.  My legs were quite tired and I wanted to make sure I could chase any dangerous attacks.  Emma James (NSWIS TREK) attacked in the last 200m of the KOM and the peleton didn’t react.  She quickly joined Sara and the two of them worked hard to gain 1min45 on the peleton.

The stage finished with a nasty 2km climb up to the Talbingo wall.  The chasing peleton splintered to pieces as we tackled this climb with most girls using the 39×25 gearing.  Emma James held off Ljungskog and Melchers to win the stage.  I finished 43^rd 3mins04 down.

Unfortunately, Marg broke a spoke in the last 10km and hoped that loosening off the brakes would prevent her wheel from rubbing.  However, the wheel rubbed badly on her brake pads, giving her resistance she didn’t need.  She finished 10^th but the time she lost pushed her back into 6^th in the overall GC, 1min05 behind Melchers, prominently wearing the sky blue leaders jersey.