My post yesterday was long, so I'm going to be lazy tonight. Today's stage was hard. We had two KOM's prior to taking on Brasstown Bald, which is probably the hardest climb I've ever raced up. I last did this race in 2004 and I'd forgotten just how tough that climb is. There were some good crowds up there though, and that always helps out. Those that are here last year say that the crowds were quite a bit smaller today than in '05. That can probably be attributed to the retirement of one particular rider. Regardless, it's still nice to see people coming out and cheering. There was also apparently a race going on in front of me up that final climb, but I knew nothing of it. For me, it was just 10km of trying to avoid getting off and walking my bike. That might well have proved faster, though.

Only one more stage left and it's our last chance for a stage win. My roommate for the week, Nathan O'Neill, put in a great climb today but still slipped back a few spots on GC to 7th. That makes him the top non-ProTour rider, which is very respectable. Tomorrow's stage won't provide and opportunities to change that position, so we'll be looking to get Karl Menzies or Gord Fraser the stage win instead. For me, that'll mean hard riding on the front to help them get to the line as fresh as possible. After that it'll be a few well earned beers and a little bit of time with Adrienne before heading out for a month in Europe. Those beers will probably supersede an entry here tomorrow, but I'll try to get the GPS file up at the very least. Thanks to everyone that's been following along this week.

Today's file is here: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=647896