On the Road Again!

Hey everyone, it's been a long time, but I've been trying to take a much needed physical and mental break. I believe the last time I wrote was during ToC. I don't think I need to do much review on that subject. It is well known that the race did not turn out quite as we'd hoped, but we did our best to salvage it and not quit.

Following ToC, Lisa and I headed to Wauwatosa for a few days with my family. It was really great to be in a familiar place for a few days with laundry access, familiar roads for running and riding, good food, and the ability to unpack our suitcases a little bit. The unfortunate part of the whole home stint was that I hardly recovered from ToC because I was busy getting sick. After waiting several days for it to clear, I had to finally go to the clinic. I walked out with a prescription for my second round of antibiotics in less than a month. Unhappy with that but hopeful that I would feel better by the weekend, we caught our flights on Friday for Greenville.

Saturday was the time trial, and I definitely wasn't feeling as spry or confident going into it as last year. I rode the race as best I could. My body was not very happy with me, but I actually got rid of some of the congestion in my head and chest with the effort. Following the time trial, I felt a little bit more positive that with some more rest over the next day and a half that I would hopefully feel close to normal on Monday.

On Monday I was feeling much better than over the past 10 days, so I was very happy about that. The race began with the usual flurry of attacks from every team. Ben and I did our best to mark Garmin and BMC because they were the big teams/favorites in the race. With just two of us, it was hard to cover every move, so we had to pick and choose. I was quite nervous when I saw Andrew Talansky in several moves. Tejay was feeling the same way evidently because he attacked to bridge up to a move Talansky was in. I followed Tejay, along with several others, and there was a split in the field at that point. Somehow we had created a 20+ man breakaway with 5 Garmin guys, including Farrar, Talansky, and Danielson, who would all be their favorites. At that point, Garmin took control to drive the break...

Off to board a plane to Barcelona. I'll finish on the plane and post the rest later! Stay tuned and thanks for checking in.