Cycling: Crosby secures win in Asia for PureBlack Racing

Louis Crosby has secured PureBlack Racings first win on the Asian circuit in day four of the Tour of Thailand. Photo / Warren Buckland.

Louis Crosby has secured PureBlack Racings first win on the Asian circuit in day four of the Tour of Thailand.

The win comes after a huge day yesterday where the team was left battered from
some massive hill climbs.

"We went around a corner with 300m to go and I knew I just had to go full gas," said
Louis of his sprint finish.

With every member of the team playing their role exactly to plan, PureBlack
Racing knew they had a great chance at being up there in breakaway for the finish of
stage three.

"We went in with the understanding that in every breakaway we would need to have a
rider up there," said Louis, "we got a rider in every move and we were constantly
working on chasing down every move that happened."

This tactic worked perfectly for the team who had to work hard in several splits of the
race until 75kms in where Louis took off with the final breakaway.

Todays race suited Louis perfectly, because of his height, generally flat stages with
short sharp hills are his specialty.

At the 100km mark there was a 2km long hill climb that had a 20% gradient, this was
where the breakaway was tested.

"Going into the hill nine of us were three minutes ahead of the bunch, at the top of the
hill one had broken away into the lead and five of us remained."

Louis knew he had to continue to ride strong to stay in the lead, at the same time
holding onto enough energy for the sprint finish he knew was coming.

"I had Harry [John Harris - Director Sportif] coaching me through the last 20kms
making sure I didn't burn myself out."

"It all came down to the sprint finish," said Louis, "I am obviously very happy, but it
is time to shower, have a rest and recover for tomorrows stage."

This is BikeNZ PureBlack Racings first stage win on the UCI Asian Circuit.

BikeNZ PureBlack Racing is standing in 14th place overall in the Team GC.

- Herald Online