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Stage 4, 2006 FBD Insurance Ras - done & done

Pulled a daring raid on the peloton today with Ciaran Power. The racing was super-intense, just tons of attacks going off all over the place and I was sick of doing the 35kph-53kph-35kph thing, so I rode off the front on a descent where Power and I proceeded to bridge to the early 5 man break, drive it for the next 90km, and blow shit up on the Cat 1 KOM climb. Snagged thrid on that (who said I couldn't climb?), but then Pate threw down with a massive attack on a wall shortly thereafter and I was too blown to do anything. After the dust settled, I was 9th on the stage and catapulted myself into 9th on GC. Can't sleep tomorrow though, there's like 9 guys within a minute and half behind me on GC, but I have all the boys riding for me so hopefully I won't have to ride much for the 173km.

I'll do a better stage-by-stage sometime, but so far I've had four wheel changes. Two on the first day, and that sucked because shit was really starting to go off and I spent 15km in the caravan (in a headwind, with bad caravan drivers) to get back, only to flat again as soon as I got there. Another 5km in the caravan for that one. Schiesse. Lost a minute in the last km cause I was so blown from chasing. Yesterday and today the changes were a lot smoother.

Racing is very unpredictable here, with only 5-man teams it is hard for any one team to control the race, so every day is a run-off like a one day race. Attacks, more attacks, big groups riding away that shouldn't, etc. Here's hoping guys are too tired to attack from here on in.

Shitty weather too, oh my god.

Apologies for not e-mailing anyone personally on this, but this is the first internet I have seen sine Germany, and I am going straight to bed when I am done writing this.