Ryan Standish: Stage 4 Time Trial Highlights!

This morning's stage was absolutely phenomenal with the ~22km time trial which started and finished at the Alice Springs Golf Club with a bit of a later start for me, heading off at 10:18am (30 seconds behind Ben Mather). I knew going into it that I had the upper hand having someone to chase the whole way which made it very challenging not to get out of the gate too fast and blow myself up. I knew that he was going to be really strong again in the sand and in all the climbs like yesterday so I made a point of saving a little energy on the first half of the ride and staying super smooth and fast through the singletrack.

Had the pleasure of trying to run away from cameraman Norm Douglas (who put together the super cool highlight video below) out on Kim's Track which added some excitement before having to put my head back down and continue the chase. On the way back I decided it was time to have a big dig on the fast and flowy Emily Gap Track and hoped I would be able to see Ben some time soon. About ready to slow it down a little I caught a glimpse of him and James Downing at the top of some switchbacks which rekindled the fire in the hammered legs.

With about 3k's to go I had finally reeled them in and knew that I had had one of the rides of my life, hopefully not doing myself in for the next three stages...! It has been such a pleasure (and suffer!) to ride with these guys so far this week, all of their racing knowledge and friendship has made me truly respect them and a little anxious to see what they've kept in store for me in the second half of the race.

Anyway, here's the quick video and a couple more photos before the night stage this evening. Enjoy :)