04gatourbrass04

MORE STAGE 5

George Hincappie previewed this climb for the Postal team, its only two hours drive from his front door, and told the team that they would need 23 tooth rear cassettes for the climb. Most of the other teams had not previewed the climb and underestimated their needs. The majority had 21's on the back and when they realized that Postal was equipped with 23's there was a mad scramble to get 23's early that morning. A contact of ours that was working neutral support said they had to refuse to give away any of their 23's in order to keep enough to do their job. On this final climb it was rumored that several riders were flatting on purpose in hopes to get one of the rear wheels with a 23. Because of improper gear selection many of the riders suffered more than they should have.

The only rider that did not suffer on this climb was Chipo. Every few meters another fan ran out to give him a friendly push. As he came up the hill you could hear him asking for a push then repeating "thank you". It sounded like this... "Push? Push?"... "Thank you, thank you". The funniest thing I saw was when a group of fans ran out to give Chipo a push and started pushing then realized they were pushing the wrong rider when they saw the real Chipo. They let go of the rider they were pushing so quickly in a effort to get to Chipo that the poor dude that was getting a good rest almost fell over. It was actually quite comical.

A COUPLE OF RIDERS FIGHT UP THE HILL HOPING TO STAY IN SIGHT OF THE LEADERS