Stage II: San Dimas Stage Race

Well, today was another successful day for me at the San Dimas Stage. With much thanks to my PAA/Merrill Lynch teammates I was to win the stage and maintain the overall leaders jersey. My teammates set a quick pace almost immediately and the race never slowed down. They also took the first two positions in both of the intermediate sprint laps to keep others from gaining the time bonuses. I spent the whole race keeping an eye on (and holding the wheel of) the second place rider (only 6 seconds back from me at the beginning of the stage). The pack mostly stayed together until the last climb (a moderately steep 200 ft ascent over a half of a mile or so) when the second place rider attacked HARD! I was a few bike lengths back when I saw him start to move up. He started passing riders at the bottom of the hill and I started cranking as hard as I could to stay with him. We pretty quickly dropped the pack as he set a blistering pace up the hill. I held his wheel to the top and down the fastest descent of the race. As we came into the flat section leading to the finish I held his wheel and let him do all the work. With 100yrd or to go, he tried to sprint, but I was pretty fresh as I had had the opportunity to recover from the climb while he was still pulling, and I out sprinted him for the stage win. The race was great fun and I am looking forward to the crit tomorrow! Hopefully there won't be any accidents. Until the....