Stage four was dubbed as one of the toughest stages riders had ever done due to the combination of heat, wind, and topography. Almost 2,000m of climbing was completed over the 151km course that started in Kabinburi and ended in Thailand’s famous National Park, Khao Yai.

Peloton passing by many of the abundant fruit stands. Photo Daniel Carruthers

The National Junior rider from Laos who had been sitting in second place overall, just 14 second behind myself, clinched the overall lead with a brilliant ride that started with the first 10km 500m climb. Despite my valiant attempts to stay with the front group going up the climb, I found myself slowly, but inexorably, losing contact after responding to a surge about ¾ up the climb. Three riders went clear and I thought that I would be able to reel them back in after the KOM line, but due to the heat and the unexpected steepness of the rollers going over the top; I spent a lot more time trying to recover and I just had one rider to work with. He was not exactly much help and was getting weaker with his pulls on the front. At one point, I asked my wife (who was feeding me) to find out the time gap and it was up to 11 minutes. I was stunned to hear that and tried to go harder. My companion had decided to drop back and wait for the next bunch that would come through. I could have too, but I figured that by riding steady tempo would be better for me. I was caught by this group of 10 riders at the base of the final climb into the Khao Yai National Park – I was still feeling ok at this point and when the climb kicked up I was with two others and the others had disappeared behind me.

When I was just climbing into a good rhythm, the twisting road fringed by dense jungle angled straight up at close to 20%; this was torture to the system, it required every ounce of energy just to remain on the bike – I was standing and forcing myself up the cruel climb in my 39-23 gear ratio (some riders had up to 28!). The torture almost broke me, but I managed to stay on through sheer determination and focus. I was caught by a number of riders from the other categories and about 10kms from the finish; several riders from my category had caught me and attempted to blow by me to discourage any chasing on my part. I accelerated to latch onto their wheels and despite their attempts to shake me, I was resolute. However, one of them managed to get a gap on the final 18 plus percent grade and the chase was on. The other two tried to draft my wheel, but since I was sprinting over every short roller and going at my maximum pace I soon dropped them.  I was gaining on the rider in front of me but my final surge was not enough and I finished in 6th place - an epic 4hrs 35mins on the bike, some 17 minutes behind the stage winner. The stage winner is a promising young French/Laos rider who is going to Switzerland next week to complete some intensive training at the UCI Center.

Stage 5 – Carruthers wins from two-man break

After my complete annihilation at the hands of the Laos rider in the mountain stage, I was focused on getting some redemption with a strong ride in the final stage. My plan was to attack from the gun and try to establish a move that would not contain the Laos rider: something that would be very hard to do, given his ability to follow every move I had thrown at him in the previous stages.

While waiting at the start-line, someone came and handed me two energy drinks and told me to “drink one now and drink the other at the half-way point”. So, I guzzled down the first one while eyeing the Laos rider and flexing my biceps at him in a show of mock intimidation. The gun went off, and I attacked immediately shooting down the road at over 45km/h. I checked on my progress and saw that the entire group was strung out with the Laos rider leading the way to my back wheel. I immediately sat up and motioned for riders to keep going as they were all slowing down with me. A Singaporean rider then counter-attacked and he was allowed free reign. He got a good minute up the road and was building his lead as everyone else was watching me. After a few more minutes, I launched another vicious attack swinging across to the right side of the road; checked behind me and saw two riders chasing hard. To this I swung over to the left side of the road and re-launched my attack so violently that they all gave up chasing. It remained to see if I could time trial up to the Singaporean rider and then work with him to keep the others at bay. After a good five minutes of chasing, I finally made contact and we both started rotating together. I kept checking on my progress constantly and were never more than 40-50 seconds up. Unfortunately my partner was weakening rather quickly and I was gapping him whenever I pulled through, especially going over the little rollers. I knew that he was a key part to my plans and I had to wait for him to regain contact before starting to pedal again. The group behind us looked like they were slowly inching their way to us and at one point, just before we hit the main highway going into the head/cross winds, the gap was only 10 seconds and they looked ready to make the catch at any moment. The kept me dangling in front, at a tantalizing 100m, and I was thinking that they were doing this on purpose: to tire me out and then work me over later. This is also a critical point when a break can be made or broken. I thought about sitting up and letting them catch me but then again I had come into this stage with a plan and I had one other rider with me that would be crucial to its success.

The Laos National rider who won Stage 4 and the overall. Photo Daniel Carruthers

I put my head down and kept going. I kept the speedo right on 40-41km/h for the most part into the head wind and took longer pulls so that my companion would recover and be at least able to pull through every couple of minutes. Our lead slowly grew and by the halfway point (U-Turn) we had over a minute on the chasing group and with the second energy drink gulped down, I found new-found energy that powered me over the relentless rollers and cross-winds to etch out a very good three plus minute lead.

A blunder made by the organizers caused us both to miss the turn and we lost a lot of time, however they paced us back to the front of the 30-39 category and gave us the same time-gap as to when the incident occurred. Our race was not the only one that contained blunders with people missing turns as it happened to all of the categories. I was furious that this happened as I had worked extremely hard to get into the position I was in, only to have it erased with only 30kms to go. Behind me the chase was falling apart with the Yellow jersey and one other rider working together to try and chase me down. It was two versus two and with our good time gap with 30kms remaining, things were looking good for my chances till the mishap with missing the turn!

Daniel Carruthers relieved after finishing a tough mountainous stage. Photo Daniel Carruthers

The official told me that I was still the leader on the road and I was given a well deserved win. Apparently the rest of the group also missed a turn later in the race and ended up finishing 20 minutes behind me, which technically put me back into the overall lead. But the organizers ruled that my time should be the same as the bunch and therefore do not gain any places on general classification. It was a day of confusion with all the grades mixed up with the timing – even the 30-39 had the bunch finishing ahead of the seven-man breakaway! I was content with my 4th stage win out of five stages and finished 4th overall on General Classification.

Stay tuned for more racing updates from me at the upcoming Shanghai races.

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