Director’s report from Johnny Weltz:
A dramatic day in the desert! It was a very windy day that started at the camel track. We rolled out easy and after 2 km two minor riders took off, so no one chased. The leader jersey’s team let the gap grow and grow until it came to 22 minutes and no one had moved! The leader ‘steam could not decide to chase or not!
So we started to chase, but after a right turn we headed into a strong cross-wind, and ‘it’ hit the fan! The field blew into several groups, but we were well presented in the front. Then in a moment a rider took out Martijn’s front wheel so he and Cozza crashed, which cut Murilo off from front group as well. Cozza left with a broken collar bone.
Now Tyler was the only man in front group with 20 riders. with several teams represented with multiple riders. They stuck together until 8 km to go , when they start the attacks. For Tyler it would have been OK to finish in the front group at same time as the others, even if we didn’t catch the two breakaway riders — hey will lose time anyway this week. But as Tyler was isolated alone he wasn’t able to keep the group together and lost some time to the GC riders. Danny and Murilo came in in the second group.
