Day Two

Day two, first road stage. well this was pretty much a flat to rolling stage for the first 88 miles or so. then the real climbing began. I say real climbing because the last 7 miles was category 1 climb. Yes, I even used my 27 tooth cog in the rear with a 39 in the front. This stage had a very strong cross wind with everyone fighting for position the whole race. Troy wanted to make sure nothing got up the road so he went up the road with one other rider and stayed there for about 30 miles just to make sure no one was out there that could cause a threat to my 2nd place in GC. Eventually he came back just shortly after the climb was to begin. Whe the climbing began the field started to split so I moved myself to the front in anticipation to this result. making the front break I was off and in the running. I told myself just sit on the back of the group and let them just pull you up. This was working then there was a jump in the pace so I stood up and went. we are all still together, then another jump here a little bit of a gap opens. I dont panic just keep the pressure on the pedals and keep an eye on the guys in front I bridge up to two guys coming off the back of that group that is only about 10 yards ahead of me, but we are moving so slow that that is still a good gap. when catch those two guys, one othem has a mechanical and breaks a rear shifter cable. so me and the one other guy keep the intensity high and try to close the gap. This is not working so I attack a couple times and try to bring the fews guys up the road back. In the end I was not able to bring the group I started climbing with back but did finish 7th on the day and was the only guy who had one of the top TT time still high in GC. So I was pleased with the day.