Despite a long breakaway, stage 2 of the Tour of Limousin all came down to a huge field sprint. Lucky Martijn Maaskant finished 13th on the stage and is now 15th in the overall classification.

Tomorrow’s penultimate stage from Brive to Cublac will be hardest of the four-day stage race and includes two category 2 and one category 1 climb. For those of you interested in follow the stage direct, there’s a great French site directvelo.com, that has written play-by-play, in French of course.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Yukiya Arashiro 4h23′47″
13. Martijn Maaskant +00″
38. David Millar +00″
71. Trent Lowe +00″
84. Kilian Patour +25″
102. Magnus Backstedt +49″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Nicolas Roche 8h27′29″
15. Martijn Maaskant +23″
66. David Millar +2′12″
73. Trent Lowe +2′12″
89. Kilian Patour +4′25″
93. Magnus Backstedt +4′49″

Taylor Phinney’s 14-year-old sister Kelsey is provided regular updates on events surrounding her big brother’s Olympic debut in Beijing. This is her last report before she flies back home. She is pictured above, the first person from the left in a red Taylor t-shirt, yelling her heart out!

Yesterday was our last day here and these Olympics went by in a blur. I came here only hoping for Taylor to be happy with his ride. For being here at 18, he rode an amazing race. T got seventh overall! My mom got seventh when she was fourteen in the Olympics for speed skating. If he ends up with the same results as my mom, then he will hopefully end up with a gold in 2012 in London. So keep an eye out for him.

Some people may say his result was not as good as he wanted, but we all came here with no expectations. He was here to compete and be a part of the Olympics. Of course everyone wants a medal but he is young and has plenty of time for that. Our family and friends are very proud of him for everything he accomplished this year.

These past ten days have been so much fun, just being around the different sports is great. I was just talking to Tay and he told me that he never wants to leave the Village, but unfortunately he has to leave after the closing ceremonies. Sophie and I aren’t really looking forward to going back home and to school either.

Well thanks for all the support for Taylor! I hope you liked my few blog entries.

-Kelsey

Competing in his first stage race since surviving the Tour de France, Martijn Maaskant is back on form and finished 10th in the opening stage of the 41st Tour du Limousin in France. He finished just 3″ behind stage winner Nicolas Roche in the front chase group.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O Stage Results
1. Nicolas Roche 4h04′02″
10. Martijn Maaskant +03″
76. Trent Lowe +1′52″
80. David Millar +1′52″
87. Kilian Patour +3′40″
92. Magnus Backstedt +3′40″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Nicolas Roche 4h03′48″
13. Martijn Maaskant +17″
76. Trent Lowe +2′06″
80. David Millar +2′06″
87. Kilian Patour +3′54″
92. Magnus Backstedt +3′54″

Though the players were the same, the outcome of today’s final sprint for stage 5 of the Volta a Portugal was slightly different. With some team sacrifice and a strong lead-out from the Argyle Armada, Tyler Farrar (above) was in perfect position position for the sprint where he took second to Francisco Pacheco (winner of the stage 4 sprint).

“I have to thank the boys for today. First Christian was there to give me his wheel when I flatted with 20km to go. Then Steve and Pat did a great job to bring me back to the front, and Chris finished it off with a monster lead-out,” said Tyler. “Without their help, I would have been totally out of it. I just need to win one of these things now to pay them back for all their hard work!”

There were no major changes to GC and Dan Martin (right in orange) still leads the Best Young Rider classification.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O stage 5 results
1. Francisco Pacheco 4h30′16″
2. Tyler Farrar +00″
28. Dan Martin +00″
40. Lucas Euser +00″
76. Pat McCarty +00″
91. Chris Sutton +00″
111. Steven Cozza +3′55″
135. Christian Meier +14′46″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1.Rui Sousa 22h36′12″

11. Dan Martin +5′38
19. Pat McCarty +7′45″
33. Lucas Euser +10′02″
49. Steven Cozza +17′23″
86. Tyler Farrar +35′07″
96. Chris Sutton +36′14″
115. Christian Meier +44′19″

Team Garmin-Chipotle Best Young
1. Dan Martin 22h41′50″
2. Tiago Machado +1′21″
3. Jose Herrada +1′28″

Austin Murphy of Sport Illustrated reports on Taylor Phinney’s Olympic bid and his fast rise as a cycling talent.

From the article: “A year ago, the kid didn’t know the individual pursuit from Trivial Pursuit. But Connie explained it to him — she’s a former world champion in the discipline — and he decided to give it a whirl. He won the U.S. national championship. In his first race. His fourth race was a World Cup event in Carson, Calif. He won. He qualified for the Olympics, then set a junior world record in the 3,000-meter pursuit.”

I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of my recovery. I’ve had a pretty relaxed summer, although it has definitely been the most difficult period of my life up to this point. Traumatic brain injuries are so frustrating in so many ways. I never imagined how many areas of my life it would affect, with my ability to race being only one of them. And nothing but time and rest will fix it. It’s difficult because to any one hanging out with me, or even riding with me, I would seem perfectly normal. But there are still a handful of invisible, yet critical things that are only slowly coming back to me. Getting that last 5% back remains the toughest part of the process. I’ve really had to relearn a lot of the little tricks up my sleeve, the ways of processing things and dealing with situations, and just trusting my instincts. All the little things that make a big difference and make you “sharp.” Fortunately my family, friends, and my team have been unbelievably supportive through the whole process.

I’ve been riding now for about six weeks, beginning before my neurologist had wanted me on the bike again. For me the bike has been the most healing tool I’ve had, so I’m really glad to be out on the road again. As I started increasing my training load after a few weeks of easy riding, I was feeling surprisingly good. Then I had a total break down where I was in a fatigue- and depression-induced lull and I hardly got out of bed for a week. A few training program modifications ensued, and since then I’ve taken what I’ve learned about my decreased recovery ability to train much more effectively.

I met with my doctors at Craig Hospital last week to get another CAT scan and devise a time frame for my return to racing. We did a CAT scan instead of an MRI because my neurologist wanted to see if there was any new bleeding or anything that may have caused my massive week of fatigue and depression. Luckily there was nothing remarkable on the scan except that a scar has developed from the hematoma. This doesn’t really mean much other than it is there and is a representation of the severity of the injury. That was encouraging and an indication that my healing has progressed.

The things I’m still trying to correct will just take more time and rest. Consulting with my neurologists, my team doctor, my coach and my family, I’ve decided to not participate in any further races for this season. I will, however, take the line at the US Professional National Championships in Greenville, SC in the individual time trial. Having nationals as a goal is a good way to keep me sane for now while I am training to return to competition. It will fit in well with what I have been capable of doing in training at this point.

Lately, I have been able to do short, hard rides, and long easy rides, but long AND hard rides are still a little much for me as it takes days to recover. However, that’s not a big deal with a 40-minute time trial. So this month I have been training for that. I’m hoping my legs can come around in the next couple weeks and I can put in a good ride. But if not, that’s ok too. Really the biggest victory is just to be back with my team and competing. I’m really looking forward to pinning on a number again soon.

Thanks for checking in - Timmy

Mike Friedman riding with Madison partner Bobby Lea competed in the fast 50 km Madison today in the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing. The 200-lap race included sixteen sprints. The Americans started out hot finishing second in the second sprint and first in the third sprint before losing ground on the field.

Olympic Track Cycling Madison Results
1. Argentina
2. Spain
3. Russia

16. USA - Mike Friedman & partner Bobby Lea

The risk of crashing on a bike is to a considerable extent decided simply by how much time a person spends out on the bike. While race time is obviously the time we see and think about most with our guys, in fact they spend a lot more time on the bike outside of racing. So when they injure themselves in training, it always comes as a bit of a surprise though it probably shouldn’t.

Dan Pate, just home from strong Tour of Utah effort in support of Blake Caldwell, managed to eat it today while out on a training ride on his mountain bike. He sustained a sizeable laceration on his shin just below his knee. The wound was cleaned and sutured at a local Colorado Springs emergency department. Dan will have to take antibiotics for five days, but should be able to train normally after two days of rest. Next on his schedule are the US Pro Championships and the Tour of Missouri, which he should be good for if all goes well.