Nature Valley GP Stage 2

Last night’s sleep was a restless one. I wasn't sure if I would be able to start stage 2, a 150k rolling road race that finished with 6 laps on a circuit with a pretty killer 1.3k climb that hits 13% over the top. The stage didn't start until 5pm, so Pozzy and I did a coffee shop ride around 10am, and my mysterious nerve pain was still there. But I thought I would still kit-up, and start the race, and see how long I could last.

Glad I did. At the 60k mark, a group of 17 of us got away, including 2 Jelly Belly’s, a Colavita and Health Net, 2 McGuires, 2 Fiordifrutta, a Navigator, and a few others. With such a large group I wasn't too keen on driving the break, as everyone with a teammate was sitting on, and I'm not one to do any more in a break then the next guy: "racing smart" if you will. Soon we all got to rolling though smoothly, only breaking it up for the sprint points; I wasn't interested in those. The gap quickly got bigger, up to 2 minutes 40 seconds, with a chase of 9 coming across, lead by Health Net. The chase caught us about 8k before we got to the finishing circuits, and then the racing started. John Lieswyn of Health Net, the eventual stage winner, started throwing down attack after attack; Jelly Belly and Colavita both had 2 cards to play as well, and were always near the front. It wasn't until the 4th lap and 2 laps to go on the circuit that Lieswyn got a good enough gap with Navigator Shawn Milne and Jelly Belly’s Caleb Manion, to stay out and win. I was in the chase group with Tyler Farrar racing for 4th, and on the last time up the climb I took my last withdrawal out of the Suffer Bank and lost contact. I came in alone, for 15th, 1 minute 3 seconds back.

Pozzy finished up in one of the many small blown-to-bits groups, 6 minutes back.

So, I'm glad my nerve problem went away. It's tough on the morale when you know you should be coming up on some good legs, so you drive 15 hours to test them, only to suck, because of a problem you cant pinpoint!

When I get back home I'll get it checked out. For now, I'll focus on my 17th on GC, and try to sneak up - a top 10 would be really nice - but apparently Sunday’s crit has an 18% 200m climb, which blows the field to bits. Oh boy.

We'll see what we can do.

I'd like to say thanks to Tyler "eggy" Holtzman. Pozzy somehow convinced him to take a week off life, and come out here to help us in the feed zone, and work on the bikes. He's been a great help, and hasn't piled up my car yet. Thanks Egg.