This race is always hard and I don't think I've every had good legs for it. However, yesterday it played out a little differently then in years past.

So a break of 28 broke off the front early on. I'm not really sure how it happened. I was up there in a move, then got shuffled and before I knew it there was a big split.

We had two guys up there, but that wasn't great. Ideally we would have liked to send a guy like Nate across, the first time up the climb, but the gap was too big at that point to make it happen.

From the numbers on Race Shape, it looks like the break took it steady while the peloton crushed up every climb. That's what was different about this year. Normally the race would settle in, this time, it was hard every time. The peloton would shrink every lap. At one point I was going backwards at 450 watts. I got popped the 3rd time, of 4.

In the end, Jim Stemper placed fifth from the break. That's a fantastic result for him and Kenda/5-hour Energy.

Today four of us drove up to Virginia on our way to Philly for next weekend. Kinda fun, kinda not.

So I've left Sara and Mikko at home and head cross country to Greenville for the US Pro Championships. That was hard, but I think she'll be okay with my mom in town. I hope.

The TT yesterday was 3 laps and it went from decent to bad to worse. On the flip side my team, Kenda/5, had 3 in the top ten with Nate, Jim and Andy. So that's great.

Today is kind of an off day before the road race tomorrow. We went for an early ride to beat the heat and then just took naps. Living the dream.

And that is about all I have to say about that.

Gila is an interesting race. You do two hard days followed by two, not easy, but short days. This allows one to recover quite a bit before Sunday's big 100 mile, 9000 foot, Gila Monster stage.

The Saturday crit was cool and it ended with my teammate, Luca, finishing 3rd. Another podium for Kenda/5. That's what they called it in the local papes.

On Sunday I managed to get into the break, more accurately a split, with 20 other guys. We had 3 guys (Me, Jim and Andy) in it. Competitive Cyclist had the best situation with 4 guys including Chad Beyer highest on GC.

I ended going all in and pulling hard until the first big climb to give Andy and Jim as much time as possible. This was a controversial move since Andy and Jim weren't the best climbers in the group. But, I think that was our best card and we played it.

They both finished pretty well and more importantly were able to help out our climbers later in the race. For example, Nate was solo coming back over the Gila Monster and Jim was able to help him on the decent.

Now I'm just excited to be on my way home. The limited internet access has been tough. I'm looking forward to seeing how much Mikko has changed and how much was just the camera distortion.

While the host house we have is awesome it has a major flaw, no internet. Not on the phone or over the wifis. Seriously. Needless to say, this has made Gila extra hard. Don't worry, I'm doing whatever it takes to keep the blog updated.

Not much to report for Stage 2 of the Tour of the Gila. The first climb was hard, Jim Stemper got in the break and it finished in a sprint.

Today was the time trial and that was well, a time trial. I felt pretty good going up the climbs but I had trouble on the descents. I feel like I can take the pain when mashing up a climb, but the spin as fast as you can pain just feels like my legs are going to rip appart.

Anyway, we have a bit of a break till the crit tomorrow evening. Then it's a fast turn around to Sunday's monster stage.

So, Tour of the Gila. It's my fourth time doing the race, the difference this year is that I'm on a different team, Kenda/5-hour Energy.

The race started with a bunch of attacking and eventually I got into a two man move with Paul Mach Blog enthusiast Adam Carr. We were out there for a while and had up to 7 minutes at some point.

Going through the feedzone I got a bunch of cheers from all sorts of different people. One women even congratulated me on Mikko. That's what makes domestic racing so awesome. Thank you.

Eventually we got caught and when I saw Ian Boswell he asked why I attacked. He said I should be sitting in and resting so I can take care of Sara and Mikko when I get home. It's a fair point.

At the end of the day I was award the Sprint Jersey. I'm happy with that and am glad to finally contribute to the team's many podium appearances so far this season.

Tomorrow is, well, another day.