Gila--Day 5 Gila Monster Road Race

There was a little nervousness coming into this last stage, as the top ten or so guys were still all very close together. Hamilton was unofficially in the lead, as the guy who had been wearing the leader's jersey since after the second day was not going to race because of family and religious beliefs. We, as a team, knew we had to defend the jersey, and not let any groups get away. This was followed as planned, as Steve, Alex, and Kris spent a lot of time at the front of the peloton, keeping the pace high and chasing down attacks. Before the race, we talked to a couple of other riders that we know from Colorado, and did some bargaining for some extra help. This seemed to help out as we kept a tight leash all the way to the base of the final climb.
At this point in the race, it was Hamilton's and my time to shine. I immediately went to the front and accelerated hard. Being that we had more than 15 miles left to go, I almost went too hard during that initial effort. For a little while, I was dangling at the back of a six man lead group, very close to getting dropped. I dug deep, and hung on until the course flattened out a bit. Since both Hamilton and I were in this front group, we were able to sit in a little. At one point, Hamilton asked me to attack the group for him, so that the other guys would have to chase me down, and he could sit on their wheels. This I did, and for a while, the group let me go, and I opened a decent gap. After about 5 minutes, the group finally reeled me in, and I found out that some other guys had caught on to the back of the group. The group size was now up to 12 guys, but after some uphill rollers and fast descents, we shed a few of those guys again. At three miles to go, Walker accelerated off the front, and opened a gap. No one tried to chase, and so the gap started to grow. Because of the fast pace, and my previous efforts, I didn't have much to help chase, so I told Hamilton to not let Walker get any farther down the road, and I would sit on the rest of the group. He attacked, and I rested a little until we caught back up to him. By this time, Walker was starting to fade, so we sat with the group through the final kilometer. At the 500 meters to go sign, the course jumps upward to about a 12% grade, and I saw an opportunity, and attacked. I was still alone at 200 meters to go and was catching Walker, but then I heard a rider coming up behind me. Looking back, I was relieved to see it was Hamilton, and to also see that we had a good gap on the other guys. I apparently jumped at the right time. When Hamilton caught me, I yelled at him to sprint so he could gain as much time on Walker. As Hamilton and I crossed the line 2nd and 3rd, I pumped my fist, and had a big grin on my face. When our other teammates crossed the line, we exchanged hugs and high fives, as this was the culmination of a great 5 days of racing. On the final podium, Hamilton stood atop the center stand, and donned the pink leader's jersey. We had successfully defended the lead, and I moved back into the fifth position in the overall placings. In the final stage, I put almost a minute on the 4th place guy, but it wasn't quite enough to steal 4th from him.
Check back in a couple days, as I will be putting up some pictures from the race. My next race will be in two weeks. It'll be a mountain bike race in Angel Fire, NM, and it will be the team debute for Free Agent Racing.