Gila--Day 3 Inner Loop Road Race

As predicted, today was a key day. I feel that this stage is the hardest one, not only because it is the longest (approx 80 miles), but because there is climbing for most of the day, not just at the end.
The day started off with Colavita driving the pace up the initial climb in the first 20 miles of the race. Despite being early in the stage, this fractured the group somewhat, and on the following descent, the group was probably down less than 50 riders. After the first feed zone, we once again were at the front driving the pace, and spitting riders out the back. This time, we kept the heat on the descent, and strung the group out big time. Big props to Cole and Iles (and probably Hamilton--I was towards the back) for some extreme downhill speed, in fact so exteme, that the group was further fractured by the bottom. For a short while I found myself having to sit on some wheels to catch back on. This last descent was pretty narrow and twisty, and inevitably, a guy over-cooked a corner and went down in a blaze of glory. The race organizers planned well, and had an ambulance a few feet down the road, so I'm sure the guy got taken care of quickly. Because of this crash, I watched as the next guy behind me in the overall almost go off a cliff, but he managed to hold it together and only fall over his bike after coming to almost a complete stop.
The pace was pretty high through some small rollers in the valley, and while I wasn't having any problem riding with the group, I was feeling a little funny. Eating and drinking seemed to take care of this, and when Iles came beside me and say that we were going to counter the inevitable sprint for the intermediate bonus, I was ready. The spint never came because the signage for the sprint line had blown over, and no one realized where it was until we were basically on top of it. However, true to our word, Iles and Hamilton jumped, and only a Century Tel rider was able to respond. Cole, Jones, and I immediately sat on the wheel of anyone trying to bridge up, and guys quickly found out that there wasn't much help for a chase. This allowed the group of three to quickly gain a minute advantage, which then grew to 1min 48 sec. Us three in the chase group had an easy job sitting on wheels, as all attemps to attack by other riders where all kind of half-assed, and didn't really do much to up the pace. Alex, who had made it with us through the toughest climb and descent of the stage, unfortunately lost contact with the group sometime in the valley, and ended up bonking pretty badly. He said he rode by himself for nearly 45 min before the next group caught him.
The final 17 miles of the stage had rolling hills, which under normal circumstances wouldn't have been considered major climbs, but after the efforts of the past 70 miles, seemed to be pretty brutal. On one of these hills, Iles finally had enough of the pace that Hamilton was setting, and dropped off the lead group. Despite being down to two riders, the gap was up to 2 min 30 sec within a couple miles of the finish. After being caught by our group, Iles still had some legs, and stayed with us to the finish.
In some last ditch efforts to gain some time back from the the leaders, there were some serious attacks off the front of our group. Cole, being the stud that he is, was right up front, jumping on every wheel that tried to get away. Jones and I were up front too, but were doing more drafting than jumping. I credit Cole with keeping control of the entire group, and allowing Jones and I to take it somewhat easy. What a teammate!
Coming into the last half mile, two guys jumped off the front, and opened a gap no one could close. I sat towards the back until the right time, and with some encouragment from Iles, accelerated through the group. Turns out that I could have went earlier, as no one had anything left, and I fairly easily won the group sprint for 5th place on the stage. Very shortly, we found out that Hamilton had won the stage, which put him into 2nd in GC (overall). Because he moved in front of me, I am now sitting in 6th. Jones moved into 11th, Cole is still in 15th, Iles moved into 16th, and Alex and Kris are a bit further back. This stage was total domination by Colavita, as we did what we said we would before the start, and we controlled the outcome of the race from the very beginning. Success!