2nd

Got second today. It was cool. Took off with 4 other dudes on a really hard circuit and never looked back. The circuit was pretty straight forward: hard steep climb, short flat section, another hard steep climb, technical decent. Kinda like the old Andy Finch course except w/ a knarly descent. Figured the race would be won by a small group, guess I was right. Last time up the more difficult of the 2 climbs one of the riders maxed it and got a gap. Me and the other remaining rider didn't do a very good job at that whole cooperation bit (should have paid more attention to Sesame Street...) and never closed the gap. I attacked on the final climb and got w/ in 4 seconds of the leader but ran out of real estate. Had the legs to win. Oh well. Still pretty cool to be up there on a really tough day in the heat. Don't believe me that it was hard? The main "peleton" was about 14 guys by the end. No wonder we stayed away...

Drinking a beer and packing for Paris,
alex