Pia Sundstedt

The start for the fifth stage was o the air base of El Salavador. There were speaches and photos was taken of us and the soldiers. Somehow interesting, but on a way also a bit anoying. It was not so comfortable to sit in the sun listening to speaches. I wanted to get going and get the stage done. I was feeling very tired this morning, so I was a bit unsure on how I would get going. As you are tired you also get very emotional and most of all I would have liked to leave the country and be home, but now I feel better and ready to fight until the end.
The first 20km of today’s were easy riding where the US riders controlled the bunch. There were no real break aways until Italy’s Rossella Rosato tried to get away a few times. Finally she did, but the US team just let her ride about 20-30 seconds in front of us. Smart, I thought. This way she will get tired.
A downhill followed and at the bottom I saw that a Cuban and a Mexican rider had passed the italian rider and already had got a gap to her. We caught up to the lonely rider and I knew this would be my chance to try and get away. I tried once, but it did not work. I tried once again and I was away. Now I should get up to the two who were in a break away as soon as possible. It took me at least 5km. At one point I tought I won’t make it. They were riding so fast up there and the gap did not get smaller. I gave it all and finally I was up there with them. 1 minute, 1,5, 2 minutes. This was looking good. None of us were a threat to the top people in the GC. Then we started to loose time. The italians and finally also Ukraine was chasing us. After 30km in a break it was quite frustrating to be caught. I asked myself why did they not let us go?
The last 20km of the race was ridden on a very bad road. I was scared that I would hit one of the several holes in the street and have a puncture, or even worse, crash. 10km to go I saw one girl on my right hand side fly throug the air. She probably tried to avoid a hole and as she not managed to do that she hit her breaks. When the wheels are blocked you can’t do anything anymore, but that is easy to say. In such a situation you automatically hit your brakes, it is just something the impulses from your brain tells you to do. So one girl crashed and took a few more with her. I was lucky this time not being involved.
Amber Neben crashed and lost the leaders jersey. This is really sad, because her team did an awesome job today and she is the strongest in the field. Now Brasil will have to defend the jersey during tomorrow’s last stage. I think it will be a hard one, with a lot of attacking.