I shaved the beard off last night hoping it'd make me faster today, but it didn't really work. Today was rough. Mike Creed and I were on early break duty, but after covering a bunch of failed moves, we both ended up missing the one that finally went away. I almost made it, and actually spent about 10k chasing, but ultimately I didn't get there. That was frustrating. Then, in the finish, things got ugly. Just before starting the second of three 5k finishing circuits, all five of us were bunched near the front when someone touched wheels just in front of us. Of the five of us, only Victor managed not to get involved in the ensuing chaos. I had some road rash and I was pretty shaken up, but I was ok. I never made it back to the bunch though. Mario had some road rash as well and ended up using the car to help him get back to the field, which ultimately got him relegated from his top ten placing. Mike didn't actually fall, but was just stopped momentarily and ended up finishing five minutes back with me. Fred was the most banged up of all of us, barely finishing the stage. Apparently he'll be making the decision tomorrow on whether or not to start the day.

Sometimes days like this happen, but today was especially rough. Thankfully, my dad was in town and my brother, Ryan, drove up from Pasadena. We got out for a nice dinner at a local Argentinian place this evening, and getting to hang out with them made me feel a lot better. A good bottle of Malbec helped as well.

Yesterday's TT stage was a bit better. For me, there was no pressure to go fast, which made it a pretty relaxing day. The course was a lot of fun too. Strangely though, I got a better result riding without pressure than I generally get when I really go for it. What does that mean? But time trials against these top guys always amaze me. No matter how hard I might have tried, I can't even imagine going two and a half to three minutes faster than I did out there. Amazing.

The lack of pressure yesterday gave me a chance to truly enjoy my unusual surroundings a bit. The outside of our team bus has been a complete zoo every day, and yesterday was no exception. I got about 50 autograph requests before the TT started, but 49 of those were just people asking me to have Cipollini sign something for them. I think the one guy that actually wanted my signature just felt sorry for me. That Mario's one popular guy.

After I finished the TT, I had the obligatory drool, snot, and sweat stuck to my scraggly attempt at a beard. When I got back to the team bus to change and clean up, I discovered that it had transformed into the podium girl dressing room during my absence. So there I was, the absolute epitome of repulsiveness, surrounded by four gorgeous models putting on makeup and discussing their clothing. They were quite nice and tolerant of my presence. Troopers, those podium girls are.

So now only one more stage remains. It might snow in the mountains on the way to Pasadena. Even if it is another nasty day, knowing that it's the final stage will provide some extra motivation to try to do something special. Hopefully we'll all have a bit better luck than we did today.