Stage Three

Greetings from Sunny Georgia! I meant to post this last night, but I was exhausted and went to bed instead. It's a vacation, right?

I went to the start in Rome and got a lot of autographs (felt like such a bike geek...) and some good photos of riders just hanging out waiting to start. The start was at The Darlington School, and so there were students everywhere. They got the day off school for the race--cool!

It was a really strange stage. A group of 13 riders went away early--and stayed away. Really away. The 13 provided an exciting sprint finish, with Belgian Gianni Meersman (Discovery) taking the stage. And then we waited. And waited. For 29 minutes! That's an eternity in bike racing. The top of the standings is totally different now, and most of the pre-race favorites are now working for others. Discovery's Janez Brajkovic is now just two seconds behind the new race leader, David Canada.

Today is a time trial that finishes up on Lookout Mountain at the world famous "See Rock City." Should be interesting....