The race started at 7:30 this morning and it was unbelievably cold. The course started with a few long and gradual climbs heading out of town. We went over these pretty quickly and the group stayed together. One primal rider left on a break away there.
From there we descended into a valley and then gradually climbed over some rolling hills to the continental divide. After crossing over the divide the pave really picked up. The break had a gap of about 5 minutes and was beginning to threaten the top GC guys.
Things realty heated up with about 20 to go when we hit the start of the category 2 climb. The GC leader immediately threw in an attack and the peloton shattered. I went with the attack along with about 9 other guys. I was able to hold on for a few miles but felt terrible and was dropped with about 14 miles to go. It seems the 4 days of race efforts leading up to today had taken their toll and my legs were absolutely cooked.
Although I was no longer contending the stage win I tries the keep my pace up in hopes to sneak back into the top 10 GC. At the end of the day I finished 10th in the stage about 1:30 back from the stage winner. I knew the riders that I needed to gain tome against to get back into the top 10 were behind me but I wasn't sure if I had created a substantial enough gap.
Sadly, I was only able to gain about 30 seconds on the riders who had pushed me put of the top 10 in the ITT and that wasn't enough to move up. I was still 12th overall.
Although I didn't have any huge moves that would have won me the race, the thing that most certainly lost it for me was the ITT. This is clearly something that I'll need to really work on and eventually get the equipment for if I would like to do well in an event like this in the future.
All-in-all it was a fantastic experience and is something I would like to do more of. I am already looking forward to returning next year.
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