It seems like an age ago, and in some ways it was!  How time flies when you’re running around the continent like an idiot.  Gila recap:

Stage 2: Filthy.  Felt horrible.  Would try attacking, would make it 50 meters in front of the bunch…hover there, and then come back.  No fun at all.  Seems being sick didn’t help my recovery in between stages very much.  There was a crazy descent with at least one kiwi riding over the edge….a long valley where the roads seemed dead.  But all in all, the stage felt pretty uneventful.  Phil started to find his legs with a 4^th place in a tough little sprint finish.  At the end of the stage I was interviewed by a New York Times reporter: “Tell me what you know about broken collarbones?” He was obviously here for Lance-Fest ’09.  My witty response?  “If you haven’t broken your collarbone yet, you haven’t ridden a bike for long enough”.  Read across the world.

Stage 3: TT.  Out and back on a dessert highway.  Big wide roads with some long climbs….you’re either going up or coming down here and I came equipped with a 60-tooth chainring for the coming down part.  That was a joke of course because only Chuck Coyle would think of using such a thing.  But winner time triallists on this course have been known to use a 58 before.  Try riding in an extremely aero position at 90kmh with a disc wheel and crosswinds…..no fun.  Levi crushed everyone, big Tom Zirbel had a decent ride, but importantly Phil Z had a good ride in a sign that his form was looking good for the Gila Monster – the last day’s filthy road stage.

My little caveat from the stage.  I crossed the finish line (I was 7^th by the way), wheezing and coughing thanks to my lovely state of health and immediately I am given a chaperone to go to the drug test.  Warm down?  What’s a warm down you may ask?!  I am obliged to keep the woman by my side until my pee cup is full.  She tells me that I am first reserve – meaning that I will be the one that sits in there until all the other people have come and pee-ed.  How do you spell peed?  Pee-ed.  P-e-e-d?  You know what I mean.  So I pack up.  No food, no recovery shakes….going a little bit light headed, perhaps a little bit cranky.  Off I go to the fire station where I sit down and get free drinks.  Finally the last guy required comes for his test – why did he take so long?!  I continue being my funny, witty self (they aren’t used to Aussie sarcasm here).  I say my farewells and get officially released from the doping control.  At this stage I should have gotten in my car and gone home, but instead I hang around and talk to my friend before he races his TT.  Luckily, I did because 20 minutes later, the officials come back and say, “sorry, sorry, we need you after all!”  Meanwhile, still going light headed and thinking about fainting.  Athlete’s can’t make mistakes on doping controls (ie, Lance’s shower-gate incident), but officials can?  On a positive note, I filled my cup up on the first try!  J

Stage 4:  Crit time!  One of the hardest crits in the US but only because of the altitude.  It’s not a terribly technical circuit but the whole time I was gasping for breath.  I started the stage with a 42kg video camera (I’m the son of a fisherman) strapped to my bike and I was told to follow Lance around as much as I can.  At one stage, I’m like, “Lance, you gotta get to the front of the crit!  It’s killing me down the back here!”  Eventually I left his side, I do have a job to do.  I follow a few wheels and somehow end up off the front on my own.  This wasn’t exactly in the plan.  Too windy and my lunch was obviously a little too filling….but I spent some good time out the front and I made em hurt chasing me.

Stage 5:  Gila Monster.  This is an epic of a stage.  Lots of climbing, lots of gnarly descents and a whole lot of hurt.  We had a good team meeting the night before reiterating the importance of sacrificing everything we have for our most likely candidate for winning the stage – Phil Z.  The boys came through and Ben King rode the majority of the stage in the lead break.  When we hit a wall with 50km to go, my day was done and at the top only Chris Horner, Phil Zajicek, Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer were left at the front.  That’s prestigious company Phil.  It was good to see Phil so calm and collected and he played his cards perfectly, attacking right before the finish and relegating Levi and Lance behind him!  Great win by Phil and once again, the fledgling Fly V Australia team kicks some ass!  We have a good thing going here.  Phil finished 3^rd overall on GC and I packed up, a happy man in the decision of racing on antibiotics…

I had a stage 6….not listed on the race guide…a mad scramble, driving 750miles back to Boulder and getting on a plane at 10am the next morning for Canada.  Only one speeding ticket for the trip L  I wish I had a private jet.