Stage 2: 148 km
Our goal was to protect Tim Roe and keep him out of trouble. Three of the guys aren’t feeling well, so that left BK Aussie, Jesse, Alex, and I to try for the early break. As the underdogs, suffering ahead of the race in a breakaway, even if it gets caught before the finish, is a way for us to make our presence known, and every now and then it gets lucky and survives to the end. The neutral flag dropped and Trek-Livestrong was in every move and countermove. Jesse was even solo for about five minutes, but when he was reeled in it was Alex who initiated the one that got away. Once his four man group had gained about six minutes, the race leader’s team set tempo and began to pull them back. Stiff from a three hour morning transfer, the rest of us tried to practice some energy conservation/wind avoidance skills that we had picked up in the Tour of Qatar. Three hours later, Alex was back in the main pack. Everything was together again and moving very quickly toward the finish. I watched Boonen from mid-back of the field shoot tiny gaps and just weave to near the front for a field sprint. When time bonuses were figured and seconds tallied, Alex Dowsett had moved himself into 8th on GC for his efforts on the open road.