Tour of Utah 6.0: The Tour of Utah is OVER!

I made it. I finished. I ended up third from last in the GC, but considering only 71 guys finished, I'll take that. The queen stage was exactly like I remember it from 2008: a brutal suffer-fest all the way. 100 miles of pain. Just like two years ago, I was afraid of getting dropped before the climbing even started. Just like two years ago, I couldn't believe how long that Sundance climb was. Just like two years ago, I chased my brains out, and latched on to a tattered groupetto. And just like two years ago, I finished inside the time-cut.

Things that made this race obscenely hard:

• It was SO windy. The first 50 miles, while relatively flat, were guttered a lot.
• I crashed. Some Trek Livestrong kid ran into the guard rail and took out Jeremy Vennell and me. I was fine but whacked my knee, and somehow bruised my heel. 
• I got stung by three bees, the last one was right in my quad. 
• There was 10'000 feet of climbing at altitude. 

Thanks to Mark Twight (who rode in the team car), for snapping these excellent pictures.

Also, I received my fourth random drug test. Nothing beats having to pee on command, in front of another man, after spending the previous 4.5 hours sitting on your crotch. If you've never been selected from a random piss test, here's what you can expect (from my first encounter with this strange procedure, back in 2007).