That's what yesterday and today have been for me. Yesterday was strange. The break went early and we never saw it again. Luckily we had Jeff and Tim in it, because the GC race is over for everyone else. It was slow. My favorite part of the day came in the first few minutes of the race when someone at the side of the road shouted, "get a real job." Indeed.

So, being as I was 29 minutes down after yesterday, and best case scenario was a 14th place overall finish (which, I should mention, would require beating some of the best time trialists in the world), I rode the TT pretty easy today. It was nice for once to actually have an excuse for going slow in a TT. Jeff and Tim didn't go slow, however, so now they sit in 4th and 8th on GC, respectively. That means we're all riding for them from here on out. No more easy days. Oh, and Nathan didn't go slow either. He was 3rd today, which puts him in 15th overall.

Cyclingnews coverage is here.

Brasstown is tomorrow. It's the hardest climb we do all year. Should be fun. More tomorrow if I have any energy to type.

That was the length of yesterday's stage, into a headwind. I followed a couple moves early, but thankfully none of them stuck and I spent the day sitting in the field and trying not to fall asleep. I was certainly thankful not to be one of those three guys off the front yesterday. CSC, Discovery, Tinkoff, and Toyota all put riders on the front to keep the break in control, and the break was caught just before the circuits. Once the circuits hit, I had a really difficult time fighting for position. I was so preoccupied with trying not to fall off my bike that I really wasn't any help to my teammates going for the stage win. I think that's result of a year full of injuries; I can't fully shut off the fear and fight in the finish. That'll come back slowly, I assume.

I should also point out that I got my first ever quote in Sports Illustrated yesterday, or their online version at least. They asked me what I thought of Tyler Hamilton being back from his doping suspension. I didn't feel I was qualified to answer that question, so I gave them no comment. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they presumed that to mean I represented a faction of the field that was unwelcoming of his return. Why did they think some goofball domestic cyclist from Portland who'd gotten lucky on a single stage would have anything particularly insightful to say on the topic anyway? Oh well.

It's time for another long day. With hills this time. More later.

Just kidding, sort of. Today was the first stage of the Tour de Georgia and I just missed a shot at the win after a long day in the break. There were five of us that got away just before the halfway point of the stage and, surprisingly, we stayed away to the finish. Daniele Contrini, an Italian rider on the Russian team Tinkoff attacked with two and a half 4k circuits remaining and held on to win. After chasing with Ben Day for two of those laps and not making up any ground, I attacked on the last climb and came in a little over 20 seconds down for second. Obviously I'm thrilled with a second place finish, but it's a little tough to come that close to a win in a race this big and not to pull it off. But Contrini was clearly stronger today, so that makes it a little easier to stomach. And there are six more chances remaining this week to try to go one place better. Cyclingnews coverage is here.

I should also say that it's a little tough to be writing about bike racing in light of what happened today in Virginia. There're 32 more reasons why this country needs to do something about the proliferation of guns in our society. What a sad, sad event.