Well I now know for certain that Lance Armstrong is a beast. When he went on the fourth lap I didn't even try to go because I knew that I would last for maybe two laps and then explode horribly. I spent most of the race trading attacks with Paul Mach and Nate English in the second chase group. We were holding steady at about 30 seconds behind the first chase group, but Lance and Levi were putting like 20 seconds a lap into us. I knew it was just a matter of time until they lapped us and then we would all be hanging on for dear life. As it turns out once they did lap us, the pace picked up but not so much that I was really suffering. The group exploded though, I guess a lot of guys were already right on the limit.
It didn't help matters that with 7 laps to go we lapped the last group still racing and caught the chase group that had been in front of us all at the same time right at the top of the hill. Suddenly I was 25 guys back with a bunch of worthless guys between me at the leaders. I had to drill it pretty hard on the downhill to get back to the front, and then that lap Lance decided to attack. After going deep into the pain cave I looked up to see that I was still with the front group, but Lance was already completely gone. After a few more attacks in the last few laps, it ended up being a sprint for fourth. I got behind Gerlach with a lap to go thinking that he was going to set me up nicely for the sprint, but then he sat up half way up the hill and I stupidly came around him. Of course at that point no one wanted to pull so I got stuck leading out the sprint. I am not sure how many people came around me before the line. I remember Horner and a few others, but I think I ended up somewhere around 10th-15th place. Not bad considering I'm coming off of some really solid rest. It looks promising for some good form coming back to Europe.
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