The longest stage!

Today was 98.6mi, 3 QOMs (Queen of the Mountain...a climb that awards points to the top 5 riders at the top....which makes them go fastER), 2 Sprints (same thing top 5 get points, and in the end a special jeresy and, of course MONEY), and 3 Feed Zones.

The first 'event' was a sprint 22mi in....so, I guessed it would be fairly tame until then seeing the length and such...WRONGO! I don't know why or who or what...but it was blazin fast out of the gates...there was this hilly loop we did in the first 10-15 miles. I'd swear they were givin' out $1000 prizes, cause we were racing like we stole somethin!!

Man I barely survived these climbs...and what was hardest was knowing that you had all these miles, and super hard climbs coming, and sprints...so I had to really fight not to panic, and just focus on the one hill or section I was on...So finally we made it through all the Sprints...now we are at mile 30, and I am dying. I figured, 'now it will slow down' ...wrong again...now a break tried to get going...

Somewhere around mile 40ish we got a pee break, and then right before the first major climb of the day, at mile 60, it calmed down....but there were like 10 girls up the road w/ like 1 min at the base of the climb.

Ohh, that climb. It's the same one we did wed. And it's not too horrible, as in, not too steep. But that just means it's faster. It just seemed to go on forever today. Again there are the 6-8times I had to re-convince myself that I had more in me, and I could keep pushing. It's such a fine line of pushing hard, or standing around a hairpin turn that puts you over the edge....or not going all out for fear of going over the edge...I had to keep asking myself, "Is this the best you can do??", sometimes the answer was Yes, sometime it would make me dig again....So, I was with a group over the top, and then down the decent we picked up more and more...and through a flat section we caught more, then some caught us...and it was Groupetto at it's best....

Where people yell at the lead riders if they go to fast up climbs, and people are discouraged from pacelining....funny huh, how 5min ago we were all totally on the rivet...and now it's the opposite.

I enjoyed the ride home a 40mi venture. I imagined what it would be like in the front group I so long to be a part of. Probably don't get yelled at for going hard up the climbs.

Jen Stevenson, my teammate made that front group. She rode like herself today, I'm so happy for her. The group was about 30 riders. Armstrong and Amara Abbott were off, and Armstrong won by like 2 min was the rumor I heard.

My group finished at LEAST 25min behind. All smiling!

Crit tomorrow, YIKES. I always think everyone will be tired, and that will keep the pace down! And it's always the hardest crit of the season! I'll let ya know tomorrow.