Day 2:

The TT (20 km)(21 riders)(Windy):

After a good result yesterday, my dad decided to let me use his TT bike because I was in contention for the omnium. The course was basically a lap of the road race course, a little shorter. I missed my start time but fortunately they gave me a new one. I started behind Tom Burke, which sucked, because I never saw him after the first corner. Big Ray started 1 minute in front of me though, so I chased him. I knew I would have to beat him to have a shot at the overall. The TT went well, and I placed 6th place (29:22), beating the two riders who were ahead of me in the RR. Big Ray was 8th, and the rider who came in 2nd in the RR was 9th. My teammate, Chris Aten, placed well with a time of 29 flat for a solid 4th place. Burke won the TT with a time of 27:50. I still had to figure out where I was overall, but I had the feeling I was within grasp of 1st.

The Crit(60 min)(30 riders):

Before the crit I went and had a chat with Ray and we discussed tactics. He told me the count down for the top ten. I was in 5th overall, but only 9 points shy of 1st. A win today would most likely wrap up the whole onmuim. Health Net is relentless...

The course was the worst ever. 8 turns in .7 miles. Two of the turns had potholes scattered about in them, and another was blocked by a big banner that the race put up, so you couldn't see all the way through it. The race started, and I stayed near the front keeping an eye out for the GC guys. The guy in fourth went off, but I decided to wait and see it come back, but it never did. The guy I was mainly marking was Tom Burke, because I knew on a course like this he could easily stay away. He took off once, with me on his wheel. We stayed off for a couple laps, but ended up being caught by the field. A few laps later he went again, but this time I was too far back to do anything. I tryed to jump up with the help of Alex, but after a couple laps of working really hard on the front, I just couldn't close the gap. With two guys in front of me in the GC, my hopes of winning the overall have vanished, and I just focused on making the best of the situation. In the field sprint I put several places over Ray, but one other rider passed me up in the GC. I stayed in 5th overall, still not a bad result.