Alright! First win of the year down here in bisbee. Rocked the tt bike in the uphill prologue and felt pretty good. Think i’m recovered from georgia and have gotten a bit of a fitness bump after getting my clock cleaned out there. Pretty lucky that i won the tt actually since i forgot to pack jerseys. I wasn’t looking forward to doing the race tomorrow in a skinsuit!

Been a bit trashed after the final day of Georgia. Aggressive racing from the start and Burke and I were pegging everything to get the team represented. I got “lucky” and made the decisive move. Long day in the break over undulating roads with some wicked crosswinds, I was pretty knackered by the time we hit the finishing circuit. We still had a two minute gap to the field but when Frischkorn and Louder hit out on the circuit the break sat up and waited to get caught by the pack. Once we were caught I was literally counting down the kilometers til the finish, out of water and a nice bonk coming on made things interesting. I got popped with two k to go and limped in to the finish, if you happened to be in Alpharetta for the finish I was the Navigator guy who looked like a giant salt lick. Not sure I’ve ever sweated so much salt before in my life. Hmmmm.
Back home and feeling normal once again, Monday was a difficult day though. You know you’ve ridden hard when it is difficult to walk.
Getting the bikes dialed in for Bisbee and Gila, I’ll be racing on my Colnago Dream for the road races and I managed to snag my tt bike from the team for the crucial time trials. Anyone out there have a 58t chainring or a 10 tooth cog you want to lend me for the Gila tt?

Stage 5, Brasstown Bald. A rough past two days for me. Never found a good rhythm in the TT, had a decent split at the top of the climb. 26:10. After that point I really struggled to grab that extra gear. I’ll be taking my tt bike home with me next week, hope to dial in the position a bit more. Yesterdays first climbing stage was a bit more mellow than years past. One hard climb was cut out of the middle of the stage which changed things a bit. On the long climb towards the finish I still struggled a bit, tried to help Cesar as much as possible but mainly just holding on as Phonak set a wicked fast tempo. Came off with a km to go, stayed close and quickly rejoined the lead group on the fast descent with Burke and the Pate. About 25 more guys ended up rejoining before the finish, quite a few surprising sprinters in the front group. I’m feeling pretty good out there, doing what I can with the fitness I have. Still no knee pain which is very nice, not too happy about losing a heap of form though after dealing with the knee for a few weeks. Going to give everything I’ve got to Cesar today, I think that he has a great shot at the stage win.

Well, glad that is over with. The first two days of Georgia are always a bit nervous. Big, wide open roads for the majority of the day then tight and difficult circuits at the finish. Todays stage was extra disco since the majority of the stage was spent at a pretty moderate pace. One lone rider from Target Training spent 150km off the front and the field cruised around. Once Lotto, CSC, and Phonak started to ride the gap came down quickly and we caught the breakaway rider as we made our first ascent of the climb on the finishing circuit in Rome, GA. Luckily the circuits were dry and sunny, rain fell for a good portion of the stage. In ‘03 we rode this circuit in the rain and it was very dangerous. So, no slick roads but plenty of fresh legs ready to take insane chances and give it a go. I did what I could to help the boys and stay out of trouble. Cesar the Rockspider mixed it up and rode good position into the last circuit and pulled off a 6th place. I just saw results and it looks like the officials decided to be very strict in giving gaps between riders. Bummer, normally the results would be everyone at the same time on a finish like that but I guess that they wanted to create some gaps in the GC going into the TT.
Ah well, I think that a few seconds won’t be mattering too much after Brasstown. Tomorrows tt is going to be a huge decider as well. I’ll be throwing down and giving it everything, sounds like quite the climb halfway through. The knee feels good and we’ll see how the legs are turning over.

Just finished day one of the Tour of Georgia. Fast day! Not sure what the overall average was but much of the day was spent above 30mph. Wide open roads all day then we drop down to Macon and the chaos ensues. As we hit the tight finishing circuit we absorbed the small break that had been out front for the past 50km. Discovery did the majority of the pace setting on the circuits, trying to keep Tom D. out of trouble. I felt good, lacking a little punch in the legs though necessary to hit out on the small climb. Just following wheels and staying out of trouble. Wasn’t quite able to get up to Vasili on the last lap, he really needed an extra hand in the sprint. He freelanced it and ended up 5th. I’ll be aiming to be there for Vas tomorrow.
The knee felt solid all day, no pain. Very happy about that.