A week of seconds. Started things off with a second place to Moninger in San Dimas. Nearly got him on the last day in the crit when I bridged up to the break. Couldn’t quite make it around the bunch to go for the stage win which would have given me a big time bonus. Felt good however and helped the confidence leading into Redlands. Had a great few days up in Fresno before heading back down into the smog of LA.

Opened things up with a too-short prologue. Felt good but the 10 minute effort is just too short for me. Or my power just isn’t high enough. More likely. Tuft flew and posted the fastest time. Was happy for him and happy to be just a few seconds back from the GC guys. The road race was a brothel. Symmetrics decided not to defend Tuft’s jersey and instead just placed riders in breaks. So no control in the bunch at all and a bunch of cat 1s and 2s who thought they had to be at the front for REDLANDS! Chaos. Luckily the distance and a few hills thinned things out as we reached the final climb up to Oak Glen. Oak Glen is a 4 mile climb or so. Nothing too steep, about 5% avg grade I would estimate. A few pitches towards the top that are probably 8%. At the end of a nervous 90 miles it was enough to cause some serious damage in the group. United and Health Net did some good attacking and kept the rhythm high, about half way up things started to split and I put some pressure on the front with Moninger to form a 6 man group off the front. I felt amazing and probably did a bit too much work at this point. Later in the climb when we reached the last km I was a bit cooked and couldn’t respond to attacks from Moninger and England. Those two plus Anthony Colby and Andy Bajadali put a few seconds into me. Moninger in the lead and myslef in 5th going into the crit. In 1998 I got time cut in the crit. Ah, fond memories. This time around it was a bit better. Just played crash avoidance all day and stayed out of trouble and tried to use it as a rest day as much as possible by spinning a small gear.  Woke up Sunday morning feeling like a million bucks.  One of those mornings where you wake up and spring out of bed.  A balanced and nutritious breakfast at the local IHOP and I was ready for a big day at Sunset.  Sunset Loop is a twisty, rolling circuit with a few steep pitches and some high speed corners.  I love it.  Kinda like being on a roller coaster, always bracing yourself for the next corner or uphill sprint or 40 mph descent.  An early move put pressure on Moninger’s lead and had BMC on the front to limit the gap to the dangerous break which contained Bajadali.  I had my teammate Ben Brooks up there, perfect.  Over the next few laps United rode aggressively in the peloton in an attempt to launch England across to the break and put time into Moninger.  Moninger did a good job of marking the moves and keeping things contained.  The gap to the break hovered at a minute.  With 5 to go I planned to make a big move, still 30 guys in the main peloton.  As we took the corner onto the steep climb I took a deep breath and attacked for all I was worth.  Got into a good rhythm on the climb and put some distance into the group, I think that Ryder from Health Net reacted first and forced a selection.  Brought a few guys up to me.  Over the top of the climb and through the corners I worked with Stevic from Toyota to keep the pace high.  Only 8 guys left in the main peloton at this point and the gap to the break hovering at 45 seconds.  As we made our way into the climb once again I decided to give it everything on the climb this lap and try to go across to the break.  I made the corner onto the climb and gave it full gas and got a gap straight away.  Worked it up the climb then accelerated through the KOM.  As I got close to the break Brooks dropped back and buried himself to close the final 50meters.  I owe him for that!  I was just about to crack.  Once I was in the break I took a few breaths then went straight into it and did what I could to ensure that the break would stay out in front.  From the sound of it things were pretty chaotic in the bunch.  The gap came down to 20 seconds at one point before ballooning up to over 3 minutes.  As we hit the final criterium circuits I knew that the battle for the GC win would be between myself and Baj.  He was ten seconds up on me so I needed to win the stage to take the ten second time bonus to have a shot at winning.  I gave it everything and took a nice flyer with 4 crit laps to go.  Baj buried himself and came up to me with the bunch in tow to catch me with 2 laps remaining.  At this point I knew the battle was over, Baj and I rolled across the finish shaking hands.  Brooks narrowly got beat on the line by Rory from Health Net.  Second on GC for me but a good battle.  Would have been nice to win but overall very happy with the way the racing played out, good to see aggressive riding on this circuit.

Back in Boulder now and enjoying a few easy days.  Back into the training tomorrow.  Two weeks til Georgia!