Stage 1:
Stage one was a flat, fast and furious 113 km that ended in a bunch sprint. The stage was pretty hairy at times leading into the finish, as we had to traverse a lot of railway tracks. We tried to set up Danilo Wyss for the sprint, but it was a fairly messy with no definitive train from any of the sprinters teams. Ivan Dominguez from Toyota United won the stage and Danilo wound up in 6th place.

Stage 2:
Today was another day for the sprinters, a predominantly flat 188km, with a small climb on the finishing circuit that we would do twice. The first time up the climb counted for the KOM competition. The start of the stage was fast and aggressive, and it took a while before a small group of riders made it off the front that the rest of the peleton was happy with. Toyota United did a good job of placing a rider in the move, which meant that they wouldn’t have to ride on the front to protect their yellow jersey.

The break went out to around 6 mins, but they were never really going to make it to the line with so many hungry sprinters teams to drive the peleton. We caught the break before we got to the finishing circuits, and were all set for a bunch sprint. We decided to try and set Jonathan Garcia and myself up to have a go at the KOM prime. I struggled a bit with positioning before the climb, as all the sprinters were fighting to be in position as well, and I kept getting swamped. I ended up spending too much energy on the first part of the climb, and got to the front just as the sprint for the KOM started. Jonathan and I both missed out on getting any points.

On the second lap, in the final km, there was a crash that took down three of my teammates, Jonathan Garcia, Jackson Stewart and David Galvin. I was right behind them and thought I was going to go down too, but miraculously avoided them, although I did bounce off a barrier and unclipped both feet in the process. Fortunately nobody was hurt too badly in the crash. J J Haedo (CSC) won the stage.

Stage 3:
Today started out really fast again, and a break only really got away after a bad crash in the middle of the field while we were doing at least 70km/h! Most of the guys who went down were fortunate to have only superficial damage and were able to carry on, but Timmy Duggan from Slipstream had to be rushed to hospital with head injuries and a broken shoulder. A move of around four guys was trying to get away at the time it happened, and after the crash, the rest of the peleton eased up and let them ride away.

As per stage two, the break was never going to make it to the line, and they were swept up before the final circuits. Just before getting to the finishing circuits, our sprinter, Danilo, punctured. It was really bad timing, and Jackson immediately gave Danilo his wheel, while Jonathan and David dropped back to help Danilo back to the front of the field in time for the circuits. The two finishing circuits were nice and challenging, constantly undulating and rounding tight turns. Unfortunately Danilo wasn’t able to work his way back to the front in time for the circuits. I really enjoyed the circuits, although I entered them a bit far back in the field. I had to put in quite a big effort to move up, as everyone was lined out due to all the turns. I made it up into the top twenty and just maintained position, not wanting to lose any time on GC.

Stage 4
Today was the TTT (team time trial). It consisted of four laps around Road Atlanta racetrack, for a total of 16 km. We got there early so we could ride a few laps to familiarize ourselves with the track, the turns, wind direction and the way in which we would ride the TTT. After a few practice laps we were riding pretty smoothly as a team. The track was nice and smooth with a few small hills and only one really steep little climb.

After warming up properly before our start on trainers, it was time for the real deal. We started out steady as planned and rode consistent lap times every lap. There were a few instances where we could have been a bit more “polished”, but overall we rode really well as a team and ended up 6th. We only lost around 30 sec to the winners, which is not bad when you’re up against teams like Slipstream, Astana, High Road and CSC.

Stage 5:
Today was the longest stage of the tour, 215 km. On the profile it looked fairly flat apart from three Cat 3 KOM’s, but the whole stage turned out to be pretty undulating. I found out afterwards that we did around 3400 meters of climbing during the stage, which is quite a bit. Once again the start of the stage was really positive, with lots of attacking. I think a lot of people wanted to try and gain some time before going into the big climbing day tomorrow. Four riders finally slipped off the front at around 60km, and the peleton really eased up, letting the break go out to around 11 mins.

After that, Slipstream, Astana and High Road all put some guys on the front to control the race, and they set a hard tempo. Because of the undulating terrain, it was a hard day for everybody, even while trying to sit in the peleton. I tried to take thing as easy as possible and conserve energy for tomorrow’s stage.

Up the final KOM with just a few km to go, I was feeling good, and was considering attacking over the top of the climb, as it was just 2 km to go to the finish. There were a flurry of attacks up the climb by CSC and High Road, and towards the top, a three-man break got off the front with Chris Horner (Astana), Jason McCartney (CSC), and a High Road rider. Feeling good, I decided to jump across to the move. As I did so, the climb flattened out, and it took me longer than expected to make it across the gap. In doing so I went a bit into the red. Slipstream bought us back, and the climb went on longer than I had anticipated, with a really steep pitch at the end. Having gone into the red just prior to the steep part of the climb, I didn’t have much left in my legs, and was not able to stay close enough to the front of the group. It split up over the top, and with only 2 km to go to the line; I wasn’t able to get back on and ended up losing 24 seconds. It was pretty frustrating, as I shouldn’t have lost time and only did so due to riding across to a move at the wrong time.

Stage 6:
Once more the pace was hot from the start, with a lot of guys wanting to be up the road before the big climbs started. A strong 7 man break finally formed, and everyone settled in for a hard day’s racing, with Slipstream controlling the tempo of the peleton.

The break never really went out to much more than 2 mins, with Slipstream doing a good job defending their leaders jersey. As we began the first big climb, Tom Danielson put in a big attack that split the field down to about twenty riders. He ran out of steam though and Tyler Hamilton went on a counter attack that also didn’t last too long. After that things eased up, and some riders managed to tag on the back over the top of the climb, making a front selection of around 35-40 riders. We had three guys in the front, Jonathan, Scott, and myself.

Slipstream continued to control and set a steady tempo over the second climb of the day. Scott and I tried to conserve for Brasstown Bald, and Jonathan did a great job helping us out with bottles and positioning going into the climbs. I was feeling good and pretty confident about making a top 10 on the stage. As we started up Brasstown Bald, most people just set into their own tempo for the climb, which is probably the most sensible thing on a climb that steep.

I started the climb feeling good, but after about 1 km, with 4 km still to go, my stomach let me down. I was forced to ride the climb at low threshold intensity, because each time I tried to go harder, I came on the verge of having a bowl movement! At one point I even considered stopping and looking for a bush, but there were too many spectators! I only just made it to the toilet at the top of the climb.

I only ended up 16th on the stage, which was disappointing for me. Scott did a good ride and finished 12th, which put him in 12th on overall GC as well.

Stage 7:
We had a three-hour transfer to the start of the final stage in Atlanta, ten laps of a decent circuit. When we arrived it was raining pretty hard and we looked set for a wet stage. Fortunately it started clearing up just before the start, and although the roads were still wet for the first half of the stage, it dried up towards the end.

I went in an early break of fourteen riders, but unfortunately I punctured on the second lap, and by the time I got a spare wheel I was at the back of the chasing peleton. It was a pity, as it was a good move to be in. I was feeling strong, and some of the guys from that early break only got caught in the final few kilometers of the stage. I think I definitely would have had a shot at winning the stage if I had played it right.

High Road did a good job of controlling the whole stage, protecting their leaders jersey that Sivtsov took yesterday, and winning the final stage with Greg Henderson as well. I just tried to stay near the front out of trouble or any possible splits in the field, and finished 16th. My teammate, Taylor Tolleson, did a decent sprint and ended up 8th.