From www.cyclingnews.com: Billy Demong (American R.A.D.D), Sam Johnson (Hagens Berman) and Rob Campbell (Bob's Bicycles) dangled between the leaders and the field for more than 40 kilometres. Rock Racing picked up the pace on the front of the main bunch and reeled the chasers back in before the first intermediate sprint. (Photo with permission by Jonathan Devich)

Actually, they didn't reel us in until after the sprint. I proudly took 5th over the line in that 3-deep competition. Anyway, what was I doing out there? Well, after nearly being dropped on the canyon climb out of Nephi I figured I had better be the controller of my own destiny so I made a fruitless attack after the winning break already had a 2-minute lead.

Here the road was a bit downhill and I could actually breath and I was setting my own tempo so not at the mercy of the vicious peloton. Soon Sam Johnson, either out of stupidity or respect for my chances at bridging or something came along. He was equally if not more motivated to make something happen and we picked up Billy DeMong after a short while. At this point we heard we had 2:15 to the break so we kept a strong but sensible tempo on the rolling and windy terrain.

Soon the information came to use via Tad in the earpiece and the super pro "motorcycle whiteboard" that the gap was inching out to the leaders but at the same time we were getting a gap to the peloton, so we kept up the same tempo figuring we probably would not be reaching the break, but might get a big enough gap on the peloton that we could make the adventure last a while. The gap got up to around 5 minutes to the pack.

Heading to the first feed zone preceding the first sprint, Johnson said he'd had enough, but DeMong and I kept going, and I even got motivated to get in the sprint points so I drove it pretty hard with the peloton bearing down. Along with possible media coverage from our escapade I figured it would be good to get team-bobs-bicycles.com in the sprint jersey competition results too. Like I said before though, points only went 3-deep, so my effort was in vain.

A while after I was caught the peloton was stopped due to the break being led off course. Shortly after the re-start Kevin came down in a stupid little crash and got bruised and scuffed up. He decided to abandon and I got to chase back to the pack, but they were going pretty slowly thankfully.

The rest of the race was pretty easy. I guess Rock Racing turned the chase effort down after having caught the no-man's-land move I was in. I was to be dropped as we headed back up the canyon climb we came out on. Rock Racing, and the rest of the teams failed to haul in the break and they won by a small margin.

The end was nigh for me at the Tour of Utah and I was to be dropped early on the climb out of Ogden on stage 2. The rest of the team rode super well and my respect for the riders on this team continues to grow after they continually ride tough in NRC professional stage races. It is really hard to just finish these races, let alone making into the first and second groups while the race is hard.

It's been a great year racing with and for Bob's! Thanks everyone!