Stage 3....

Holy crap.....first 50km took us 1hr and 4mins....i dont care who you are, that is fast and hard.

Finally, after a 70+km/h crash that took out a few people...Ouch...the break got away and there was a lull in the field and time for a toilet stop. Team Bissell was represented by Scotty Z...but he tells me that the break was largely under the control of the Team Type 1 rider who slowly started to tear at the legs of his 3 companions.

But inevitably...it was always going to come back together with Toyota and CSC taking to the front over the closing 50km...what people didnt quite expect was how hard the finishing circuits were. the last 8km was run on a twisty, hill and tight circuit that eventually started to tear the field apart. It was a race coming into the park...and once we arrived it didnt let up, with High Road hitting the front and dropping a large quantity of the field....The closing km's hurt and i dug deep, again with good legs but could not quite produce a great finish after a bad line into the final corner. The fast ass, downhill sprint was taken by Greg Henderson (High Road) after a great set up from his team and i trailed in for 8th place.

Apparently I have been relaxed at one point during this tour....need a hair cut though.

Now we look forward to the team time trial...it has always been the focus for our team, with our time trialing strength...so now it is time to sack up and produce the goods. Fingers crossed we can all hold onto Jaques-Maines and Zirbel...gotta have at least 4 finish....

Until tomorrow....adios....

STAGE 2....

Flat and fast again...that was how stage 2 worked itself out.

The first 60km was on like never before as the field tried to establish a break away group that they were satisfied with. There were a few times that it looked like it was going to work out, but many over ambitious and unsatisfied domestic teams kept forcing the issue and making sure they were represented. It was an weird finish to the attacking, when Justin England (Toyota) rolled off the front and suddenly found himself with a 3min gap....he was later joined by another 2 and the trio worked their way out to 7mins. Astana, High Road, CSC and Gerolsteiner went to the front and began to bring the gap down slowly.

With 20km to go the field was all back together for the finishing circuits around Augusta. A long and gradual uphill was countered by a crazy fast decent that meant trying to hold good position was a tough ask for the smaller teams.

A mass pile up with 700m to go caused some chaos, but it didnt have any effect on the winners for the day. The true sprinting talent of the field came to the front and JJ Haedo took the sprint ahead of Greg Henderson. Ivan Domingez held onto his GC lead after running 3rd.

Personally...well maybe 15th. Nothing to write home about really. Had good legs for the sprint again, but when BJM ran out of legs with 1200m to go i was too far back to do anything heroic. Still positive signs for the flat stages and the team is looking and feeling good for the remainder of the tour....except maybe Jeremy who came off 2nd best in an incident with the Toyota team car....Have to wait and see how he wakes up in the morning.....

GEORGIA...STAGE 1...

Let me start this entry by eating my words a little....while i spoke with complete facts in last weeks post and this is in no way an apology, i am one to give credit were credit is due....Jelly Belly made up for a more than lack luster Redlands by riding a strong race today and delivering their man (Nick Sanderson) to the line for a podium position....So congrats to them for proving me wrong....

Stage 1 was a short and extremely flat stage that was only at danger of splitting if the wind reared its ugly head in some of the exposed areas. Needless to say that did not happen and the pace was high for the duration of the 70miles. We (Bissell) represented well in most of the attacks and can officially take the honors for the first attack of the 2008 Tour with Tom Zirbel throwing it down some 15km into the stage. From then on the race went from a nice easy roll to a flurry of consistent and damaging attacks. It was not until nearly 35km to go however that a break of 6 was let loose and Garrett had us nicely represented.

With an abundance of sprinters here, however, it was never going to survive and was always destined to be a bunch kick. Numerous railway crossings in the final 4km added to the excitement as many teams tried their luck with big lead out trains. It was only in the closing km that Gerolsteiner took the lead and attempted to deliver Robert Foster in first. He was overtaken in the closing 200m by Domingez and Sando however and finished in 3rd. After some great help from my team mates i held good position into the last km and ended up in 4th place.

I had great legs all day and am very happy with how i feel early on for this tour. My physical preparation has been perfect and a few little judgement errors in the final 300m may have cost me a podium position. It is however a positive start for the team and hopefully something to build on for the coming week.

So congrats to Toyota, who will wear the first yellow of the tour....but we are in the wings and wont be laying down this week....mark my word.

PS. To my Jelly Belly rider, who left a comment on my last post i say this....I have never claimed to be a rock star cyclist...ever. I have no problem with taking your comments on board and similarly am willing to concede that i am not a big race winner. But if you are going to get personal then you cant finish with calling me invisible and not leaving your name to it and you have to concede that you guys didnt have a good Redlands or explain to me how i got it wrong....Fair?