American Mt. Classic Stage 1

Today’s stage was billed as a 6 mile prologue, the time does not count for GC but there is cash for each stage so I lined up. Since the were calling it a prologue I was thinking time trial but it was a mass start. Weird. My team mate Tinker Juarez (yeah that Tinker) was racing with me in the Elite Masters category. My plan was to stay with him until the single track and try to ride tempo until the finish. Shortly after entering the woods he clipped a tree hard enough to break his handle bars. Shit, I am in the lead, time to roll The Big Ring! We were at 9000ft and I have three 5 hour+ days to go I didn’t want to go too deep in the red. The Gods indeed favored me today and I was able to get the win. The real racing starts tomorrow and I have no idea how I will hold up to a 5 hour stage. Wearing the leaders jersey will be pretty sweet even if Tinker will most likely have it after that. Oh well as long as it stays in the team.