Um, I may be ok enough to be able to be in the race with him, but today was still pretty humbling, and made it pretty obvious how big the gap in strength between riders was just within our field. But think about it like this:

Me: I was hurting while in a chase group of about 20 riders. I wasn't doing much pulling, just conserving myself, hoping to get a ride to the finish. I was hurting on that climb and just trying to keep contact with the guys around me.

Mark: Rode all by himself, and faster than the combined efforts of several riders in my chase group, all of whom had to be feeling better and stronger than I was. Continually pulled away from my group for the whole duration that he was away to win by about two and a half minutes over the chase group I was in. I repeat - BY HIMSELF!

I think I need to train more.