And that marks the end of my Coppi e Bartali. No, thankfully not for any bad reasons. In fact, it's for good reasons. With two stages remaining and four already in the bag, my knee proved to be up to snuff and therefore I'm en route home now and off to Belgium tomorrow. Perchè, you ask? Tis the season to be racing Classics and the Belgilassics are precisely where I'm headed.If you're curious what Liquigas-Cannondale has in store for the weeks ahead, give this a quick read Team Liquigas CannondaleCoppi e Bartali was a mixed bag. The TTT was a particular lowlight when we went from a very Ricky Bobby'esque "if you ain't first, you're last" best time to worst time with a team crash just 1km from the finish. With much skin from five of our collectives butts (not mine, thanks for asking) missing, that sucked.But on a lighter note, the knee was up to the task including yesterday's pancake flat and righteously fast 195km stage, which was then trumped in the effort department by today's mere 155km stage. In true Italian fashion the race bible's elevation profile came nowhere near to telling the true story. Here's a telling anecdote: we had a relatively lengthy 11km climb averaging 6%, bottom to top. But what's at the top? A sprint line. No, not a king of the mountain line, but a SPRINT. I love Italy and it's infinite confusion. Italy makes me happy. Another testament to yesterday's being tough were the eighteen dudes over the time limit. Or the half dozen others who didn't finish. Ouch.Anyway nearly 3,000m of climbing and nearly an average wattage 100w more than yesterday zapped through a lot of kilojoules. Like 4,200 of 'em.But enough numbers yackidy yack; I'm headed home, will water the tomatoes, have a tasty dinner with some friends, unpack, repack, sleep, ride, and go to Belgium... all in the next 20 hours.(Meanwhile I'm updating this post about 17 hours after initially writing it; I'm therefore t-minus 3 hours until airborne. I've dined with Tejay, watered the tomatoes - and caffeinated them since it's been recommended that I fertilize them with coffee grounds - just went on THIS ride......and now need to continue packing. GO!)Yeaa bikes.