Tour of Walla Walla: Stages 2, 3 and 4

So I've done a poor job of posting updates about Tour of Walla Walla.  Below is a brief recap from each stage:

Stage 2:  time trial
I was sitting 5th GC after Friday's 1 second time bonus.  Looking back this was really stupid.  1 second doesn't mean crap if you can't protect it.  I went a little too deep on Friday's stage chasing that KOM bonus and definitely felt it Saturday morning.  At the start gate I was chasing guy on a regular road bike and getting chased by a Canadian junior on a TT setup that was worth more than a year's worth of college.  Between my mind and sore legs I wasn't totally into this TT.  I tried, I really did but I just couldn't will my legs to push any harder.  I could blame it on the wind, the course or Canadians but in the end I didn't get it done.  This was my course and I was ready to tear it apart but I let my mind get in the way of my legs.  Wound up 29th, 2:20 off the leader, putting me 21st on GC, 2:22 back.  Definitely not ideal.  I guess this is just one hard lesson that every race matters, every second counts and there's no place for mental weakness in a race like this.

photo courtesy of Wheels in Focus

Stage 3: Downtown Crit

8-corner crit on super-wide but really crappy roads.  My plan:  stay near the front the first half and then drift to the back once the sketchy stuff started happening.  Well, turns out the sketchy stuff happened on the 4th turn.  Someone did something stupid and a crash blossomed to the right side of the road.  At this point I made the executive decision to take it as easy as possible.  Straight to the back and soft pedaling the entire way.  I did absolutely no work and just hung out.  No, definitely not the most exciting but safe and easy.  Legs were primed and ready for Stage 4.

also stolen from Wheels in Focus

Stage 4:  The final road race.  64 miles of rollers and nasty winds the entire race, a true hard man's race.  As a team we were set for a hard race.  We knew exactly where the selection would occur and we knew exactly what we needed to do.  And then the Canadians controlled the race.  Sitting at the front those dang maple syrup-drinking juniors would only let one rider off the front at a time.  We drilled it up the climbs at 25mph and then promptly sat up in the head wind and let all the big guys catch on.  At one point we had a big separation with 10 miles to go but again, we sat up and it all slammed back together.  This is the point at which I gave up.  Our separation had 20 guys and ten minutes later we had 34.  I call BS.  I had banked on a separation of which I could have produced a good result but here we were coming into the final 5k, 34 racers strong and all of the strong crit guys.  And of course, guess what happens.  Audi crashes.  200m from the line there's bodies on the road.  I avoid it and coast across the line.  

Overall, not a great weekend for me.  True, I didn't crash, which I'm thankful for but I definitely hoped for a better result.  Oh well, you win, some you lose some.  I think the most disappointing part of the weekend was not riding at my capacity.  Too much gas in the tank, won't happen next time.

Final result:  18th GC 2:22 down.