Tour of Atlanta Sunday Update

The pressure was definitely on today. We had a 45 minute criterium and I was down 19 seconds to first place and 3 seconds to second place. Further, this is a timed race and they had sprint primes (three of them) which gave the first, second and third rider through the line on that lap a 5, 3 and 1 second bonus respectively. The two guys ahead of me were sprinters too... Clearly, I had to watch them and drill it at the right time and get away.

With about 20 minutes to go in the crit I did just that following one other racer along with Steve Sperry and we opened a gap of 5, 10 and eventually 35 seconds! We managed to stay away and I was surely inside-out trying to earn as many seconds back as possible. Steve came to the front and pulled like a freight-train three or four times (turning me doubly inside-out!) which really helped us build the lead.

First on GC with one day to go! We'll do out best tomorrow, Memorial Day, to keep the jersey and put the nail in the coffin for a victory at the five-day, seven-stage Tour of Atlanta 2008!

Coach Jim