Here is something from the “what not to have happen” before a bicycle race:

Twenty minutes before the start today, my bike fell over and the top tube cracked. That touched off a mad rush and a last-minute bike swap of seats, handlebars and everything else. Parts were flying across from one bike to another.

This is not a situation you need when you have a hurting wrist and questionable fitness. But our two mechanics, Eric Jellum and Chris Davidson, did a great job of trying to make my spare bike the same setup as my race bike.

Unfortunately, my saddle was slightly too high throughout the whole stage. I tried to ride with it like that, but with 50 kilometers (31 miles) to go, I thought it had to be moved down. This led to a delicate balancing act of me trying to stand up and ride while Chris hung out of the Team Type 1 team car and adjusted it. It’s the only way to fix the problem and still stay in contact with the bunch and remain in the race. If we would have stopped, I would have never caught back up.

That is because today’s race was hard and fast. Normally, a breakaway goes in the first 50 kilometers of a race on a stage like this one. But today, it was 80 or 90 kilometers (about 53 miles into the 116.9-mile race) before three guys jumped off the front.

That break got out to a big lead pretty quickly and a few teams started riding hard to bring it back. There’s always a chance breakaways are going to succeed. But through experience you realize when there are three good teams like the ones today that were chasing (Astana, High Road and Slipstream), 20 good riders can ride a heck of a lot faster than three. But for some teams, the best chance to win is to hope that five percent chance the break has of succeeding is going to work.

In the end, everything came back together for the circuits and the little hill on the circuit. It was really dangerous in the last couple of kilometers, as shown by a crash that happened right before the finish (about six riders were hurt).

Wednesday’s race looks to be a harder stage with a bit more rolling climbs. And I already know my bike is going to be a factor. The mechanics are rigging up a special shifter for my handlebars to compensate for the fact that my injured wrist doesn’t permit me to shift with my right hand. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson is filing a daily diary for 10 Speed to give readers a behind-the-scenes account of this year’s Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T. He finished 95th on Tuesday’s Stage 2, in the same time as the stage winner, Juan Jose Haedo. In the overall standings, Wilson is 105th.

–30–