The psych and pfizz of cycling...

Great job to Ski Utah, Jeremy Smith and the officials for a great race... The TT was really rad with those crazy roller coasters...

Hope Mr Garage is fairing well, he's tough, when I rode by he had blood all over him yet was walking around I wasn't sure if it was real, since I was somewhat delerious at that point... apparently the Hoov did a literal flip over him, yet he and his bike were ok to continue on but Mr Polka Dot had a knee the size of a grapefruit, get well fast my man...

The plan was to put someone out on a break on Stagio uno with 15 miles left, that guy wasn't me. But, within seconds at mile 2 into the race it just seemed right, so I figured I would be the sacrificial lamb for the sake of the team... I pegged it to a HR of 175+ and unfortunately had to keep it there for the entire race to keep my speed up enough to hold off the pack... So this was new, I have been on breaks that have stuck with 2 or 3 guys, but none solo... my expectations weren't high to say the least... so I tried not to think (which I am rather good at I'm told) and just focused on running through inspirational race stuff in my head, like Cooke, Schaeffer, Riel, Porter,Treasure and the Skarpohl sticking long solo attacks in races I was in... that's it, nothing more, keep it simple... and big thanks to all the officials, for their support at each turn around telling me I could do it, and P-man, Hoov and the rest of the team for the cheers, these little things kept me going for sure... my body rebelled after 58 or 59 miles, teammates Andre and Scott caught me at 3k to go and pulled me to 1k until I told them to go hard, because I couldn't hang on any longer and we were only 45 seconds ahead of the field... afterwards I felt like I got hit by a truck, a big truck... I knew I blew my load and wondered how I was ever going to do a TT feeling like this in a few hours.

All my teammates and friends were great and did everything they could to work on my brain, with Scottie finally throwing me the comment of the year right before I took off on the roller coaster, and it worked, I prob did the best I could considering...

Stage 3 we had numbers on our side, and we used it... I was on a break with Chuck from Wyoming and did no work because I didn't want to overtake my teammates for the GC. So the whole time I just tried to keep him motivated letting him know that he could stick it and I would'nt contest him that guy has a lot of heart for sure... Well Mark Larson who was a horse, and Hanseen (we'll get back to him later) reeled him in with a great effort with one lap to go... then Scott attacked right off the front several times, Mark had more in his tank and attacked a couple of times, Andre then attacked hard, and I being fresh attacked for longer digs several times , always with Hanseen locked on... we could not break Hanseen, he was so super catlike fast catching any and all accelerations, more so than anyone else... at 1k to go I went hard to the outside, Hanseen had to work to reel me in and did with 900m to go, I kept on surging, Hanseen was right there, then Andre and Scott squeeked by with Hanseen on their wheels... I gotta tell you Hanseen was a beast, he would not break and was there at the end contesting, what a total stud.

and that is what I am talking about, when everybody brings their "A" game they motivate and raise the expectations of the group, individuals raise their game more, the group gets better as a whole and more competitive outside our little area. For me this race was a lot more in the head than in the body, and I can thank all the aforementioned guys before and during this race for the inspiration to perserve and improve... thanks, cause in the end it's really just you against you regardless of whatever circumstance you find yourself in...so to Hanseen, that's my cycling take on Zeitgeist...