cascade stage 4

yesss!!!!!!!! today was pretty solid!  surprisingly today was the best my legs have felt since ive been out here...maybe cuz just jet lag since we flew in the day before or whatever but i had a good day of racing today.  it was a tough day 84 mi with a hard long climb out of the blocks and finishing on a 4mi or so climb.  

it wasn't too bad the first few miles, just false flat then when the grade started going up the pace was ON.  i felt actually quite good and i was going forward as guys were getting shelled, with a few k left to the kom i got tailed off, but there were probably only like 50 guys left at that point.  i got tailed off with a good little group and we kept the leaders in sight the whole way up--danny summerhill was just on the front the whole time pullling us up the mountain...damn he is a strong dude!  Once we got tailed off i was pretty freaking cross eyed the whole way just hanging on summerhills wheel we got over the top and there was a big descent, our group swelled and luckily we caught back on.  the whole rest of the time was pretty chill, after the final feed ~mi 65 there was a crash i was behind, luckily i got back on pretty easily though.  But will duggan and taylor phinney went down hard, both went to the hospital.  On the final climb, i was farther back then i wish i had been, but the legs were good i spent the first few minutes just passing guys and settled into a pretty good group, made it up the climb with a good hard effort, i was right on the tail of the front group but it split and i wasnt far forward enough, i was basically in the 4th group on the road coming for the finish.  Final result for the day was 72...sounds weird, but i've never been soo pumped with such a low result.  But this race has been a real eye opener of how big a step it is--and today i had really good, maybe one of my best days of racing all year.  moved up to like 117gc, which was pretty crucial, because after today they are only letting the top 125 gc start the crit for safety, etc.  So im pumped/nervous for tomorrow, i think its gonna be blazing fast, 90' so should be good.  Pretty happy now--legs not so great first 3 days but coming around now, hopefully awesome at natz!