Stage 1

So, that was hard. The stage ended up being only 37 miles instead of the 45 they told us last night. Thank you, Jesus. 8 more miles would've been very not good. The opening climb was, at least in my hazy memory, about 25 minutes long. That created quite a bit of separation. We ended up getting shelled from the lead group but stayed towards the front of the race. Long climbs were the name of the game. Then came the descent down the Colorado trail. Wow! It was soooo fast! Then it would go directly into a blind switchback and on to more of the same for about 15 minutes. Then back to climbing. We came out into this amazing open area on the side of a couple mountains and the tops were so far above us and the valley so far below us it made me dizzy to look. So I didn't. I really wanted to but I didn't want to end up down in the valley. I came close once early in the race. We were flying down this doubletrack and the trail decided to go hard right. I made it and Jerry is screaming at me to turn. It was pretty steep of to the left. Jerry even commented that I was really moving down that trail. That made me feel good.
Anyway, I digress. So we ended up down 7:31 to the father/son team. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for us. No matter what, the riding is phenomenal and we're having a blast. Maybe riding with Jerry will help improve my skills so I can salvage my WORS season. So it's off to the nightly meeting to see whats in store for tomorrow. Ciao.