Emma Mackie Starts Breakaway. Brooke Miller goes too and gets Red Jersey.

Bonjour! The riders got out onto the open roads of the Minervois wine region in the “premiere etape” of the Tour de L’Aude. We’ve got beautiful sunny, crisp weather for today’s course plus a nasty wind. Today’s stage is 117-kilometers (73-miles) beginning and finishing in Rieux Minervois.

Conversation around the breakfast table among team director and mechanics predicted that the Cervelo and HTC-Columbia teams would seek to control the action, not allow anyone to ride off and get ahead of the pack, and that today’s race would end in a sprint finish. The consensus was that HTC-Columbia’s Ina Tuetenberg would prevail at the finish due to her sprinting skills. But, it did not turn out that way because Team TIBCO had different plans for today.

At the end of the day, here is where Team TIBCO stood.

1st place Team (we were the only team with 2 riders in the break)
1st place Sprinter Jersey: Brooke Miller
5th place GC Brooke Miller
9th place GC Emma Mackie

As a result of our first place team finish we will be the last team off on the 34km Team Time Trial Tomorrow, chasing Cervelo who go off just ahead of us.

I’ll let Brooke tell you how it unfolded.

“We planned to race aggressively today. With all the wind we thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a break and Emma had a perfect attack to set up the winning break.

“The peloton was still mostly together when we came to the first bonus sprint, but with some very strong cross winds and hard riding, we had all been working hard and the peloton was tired. Although we had not been initially planning on going for the sprint jersey, I was in good position as we came into the first sprint, so I attacked and won the sprint. My attack caused a small separation and then Emma launched her strong counter attack. I followed wheels and right away, we had a great break.”

Emma Mackie added…
“When Brooke had gone for the sprint bonus, it caused the bunch to string out and the little separation had gone off the front. So, when another rider was bridging across, I followed and then counter attacked straight away from that group at the top of a hill.”

Eventually, 11 riders stayed away for the remainder of the day gaining almost 6-minutes at one point. It was too difficult for the peloton to chase with the wind.

Directeur Sportif, Chris Georgas described the action like so:

Today’s race over rolling hills with extreme wind was super fantastic. Everything went according to plan. This was to be Emma’s day and she didn’t disappoint. Emma’s early attack and counter attack after Brooke’s counter got the juices going for a break of 9, which was later joined by two others. After that, Emma contributed greatly to the success of the break which was away for over 80 km and finished 1-minute 18-seconds ahead of the peloton. Along the way, Brooke won most of the intermediate sprints. The home crowd (they’ve adopted Brooke in Villedubert) were ecstatic. In the final sprint, Brooke powered in to finish 5th, and in the process of the day won the sprinters red jersey. Back in the pack Jo, Rebecca and Amanda did their job of staying at the front and protecting our best climber Ruth for the big task awaiting the team in the mountains a few days from now.

So hats off to Emma for getting everyone excited and finishing it off in high style.

In the end, Brooke finished 5th and Emma got 9th. Congratulations on a superb finish.

Eventually, 11 riders stayed away for the remainder of the day gaining almost 6-minutes at one point. It was too difficult for the peloton to chase with the wind.

Directeur Sportif, Chris Georgas described the action like so:

Today’s race over rolling hills with extreme wind was super fantastic. Everything went according to plan. This was to be Emma’s day and she didn’t disappoint. Emma’s early attack and counter attack after Brooke’s counter got the juices going for a break of 9, which was later joined by two others. After that, Emma contributed greatly to the success of the break which was away for over 80 km and finished 1-minute 18-seconds ahead of the peloton. Along the way, Brooke won most of the intermediate sprints. The home crowd (they’ve adopted Brooke in Villedubert) were ecstatic. In the final sprint, Brooke powered in to finish 5th, and in the process of the day won the sprinters red jersey. Back in the pack Jo, Rebecca and Amanda did their job of staying at the front and protecting our best climber Ruth for the big task awaiting the team in the mountains a few days from now.

So hats off to Emma for getting everyone excited and finishing it off in high style.

In the end, Brooke finished 5th and Emma got 9th. Congratulations on a superb finish.