Stage 3 – Hollidaysburg Circuit Race – 60 miles – 93km

After yesterday’s 100 mile stage, many riders were looking a little weary but I tend to feel stronger as the tour develops and woke up feeling ready to race hard.  Today’s stage was 3 loops of a 31km undulating course with one KOM only 2km from the start/finish.  There were also sprint points available on all three laps at the start/finish.  This made it really tough to bring Andrea to the front and lead her out for the sprints after the KOM.

Gen and Willy picked up vital KOM points today, after Katherine, Katrina and I worked hard to lead them out.  On lap 1, I also led Andrea out where she took 2^nd to Pic (Genesis) in the intermediate sprint.

On lap 2, I did the first part of the KOM lead out and then drifted back to find Andrea.  The peloton shattered over the KOM, and Andrea and I were chasing through the caravan as we crossed the start/finish line, with no sprint points earned on this lap.  It was really humid today so I did a few trips back to our team car for water bottles, shoving 6 or so bottles down the back of my jersey and bringing them back to my team mates.

Towards the end of the final lap, I worked hard to drive the pace and keep Gen and Willy out of trouble.  Near the top of the climb, Bessette (Quark) attacked and was quickly joined by Lyn Gaggioli (Tmobile) and Gen (Rona).  They held on to a 10 second lead with Gen winning the stage in a strong uphill sprint.  There was no change to the top overall GC contenders or the team’s competition.