Nature Valley Stage 5 wrap up

All the hype about this "super hard crit" - "The hardest crit on the NRC circuit" "The hardest crit in America" was pretty much true. The %18 200m climb that we started at the bottom of was a pig! There were a ton of people screaming on the hill, I couldn't hear a thing. Right when you think the suffering is over, after a few turns, it's back up another climb.Most of us did in the big ring every lap, but over the top, it would get strung out, single file, all the way to the bottom of the climb again. It was a very technical course, with 9 corners a lap. The finish was on top of the hill. So there was little time for recovery.

There was a nervous feeling around the pack at the start. The race was only 1 hour long, many knew what they were up for, and others that have only heard horror stories about this race, (uhh, me) couldn't wait to get it over with. On the first lap there were riders getting dropped, by half way, the field was cut in less than half. I was looking for a good stage finish, and I had some legs under me, but I ended up missing the final move, that didn't get much more than 30 seconds on us. On the last lap in our "main field" there were only about 17 riders, the rest were droped, or pulled out.

So today was as hard as they said, and that course is not one I or any others in today’s race are going to miss. I ended up 24th on the stage, 38 seconds off the winner, and moved up one spot to 9th on the overall general classification after 5 days of racing, 4 minutes, 3 seconds off the winner, John Lieswyn of Health Net. I'm pretty glad with the way it turned out, in the top 10 on GC, alongside some pretty good company.

Pozzy raced hard all week. Coming in on 45th on GC, and a top 20 stage finish, he did pretty well. Mark's got some tuff miles in his legs this year, with 2 back to back stage races, after some down time back home, you can count on him re-building to wicked form.

Up next, well, I don't really know. Since I got home from Europe, I was so busy getting this trip together (having it planed, and not knowing for sure if I'm going the night before...yikes!) I haven't even though about it. I think there's a race in Ottawa next weekend, but I may not go. From now until then, my backside is going to see a lot of cushion.