That's how the pros do it and that's how I rode the break today in stage 2 of Joe Martin.

Basically, the race was 2 hours of game on attacking till a break of 18, with 4 Bissell, finally formed. Since Ben was the high GC man, we had to ride.

I'm still not feeling like my old self and cracked early and hard. I sat on a bit and then finally went back to the peloton.

When I got there, some dude asked, "Is that another race up there?" Seriously, what did you think was going on for the last 2 hours? Ah, the joys of no race radios.

In the end, Ben moved to 2nd on time bonuses so it's game on again tomorrow. I finished somewhere just off the back, totally cracked.

Later, at the hotel, I looked at my blood shot eyes and sunken in cheeks and wondered how many years I just took off my life.

Then I remembered what mom used to tell me when I got hurt, "You wouldn't hurt yourself laying on the couch, but then you'd never do anything fun."

And that's why I'm going to go deep again tomorrow.