May 22, 2007 (Sligo, Ireland) – Today’s stage brought us to Sligo, on a 171km flat stage. Even on the third stage we could still feel how nervous and anxious the field is. Attacks are coming from everywhere and a few groups got away. The roads kept getting narrower and windy, which strung out the entire field and allowed groups to form ahead of the pack. Unluckily we could not appreciate the scenery, green fields separated by few centuries old stone walls, since we were flying by at 50km/hr.

Those same walls are surrounding every road we are taking and increase our illusions of speed along with a bit of a claustrophobic feeling. Once in a while we would have to slam on the brakes to avoid an oncoming car, since most of the roads have no shoulder and are barely wide enough for two cars. These conditions were perfect for a group to get away, considering you could not see more then a few meters ahead until the next turn.

About 80km in to the race, a large group of 32 riders took off including two of our own. With a 30-second gap and a good situation for us, our only job was to cover counter attacks. As I was thinking about it, I caught a small group who tried to bridge across. With the help of teammate Mark Walters we closed the gap quickly. Few guys would catch our group later on, including fellow Canuck, Dominique Perras (Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast). And there was the decisive move for the GC coming.

With everyone working well together, we were expecting a smooth ride home and securing the Team GC and leader’s position since the yellow jersey leader had missed the move.

Wrong”¦ the old feed zone attack surprised everyone and four riders escaped. This put us in a chase situation and with four riders in the lead group our plan went from ideal to hell. For seventy kilometers, Josh and Mark took care of most of the chasing with me helping as much has I could while trying not to waste too much energy. We managed to keep the split to around 45 seconds and with less then 10km to go a few teams took care of the rest of the work to bring everyone together for a bunch sprint.

And here we go; a perfect lead out from Jesse launched me straight to the top of the podium with my first win here while increasing my lead in the point’s competition. It turned out that we had a better day then expected with both of us (Dom, Jesse) first on GC, me leading the point’s competition, and Jesse in yellow and also leading the climber’s competition and the young rider classification.