This highlight is an easy one. We'll start medium, dip down to a low, then end on a high. After having spent a good chunk of July in Aspen, I know these two climbs, Cottonwood and Independence Pass, really well. My goal was to get into the breakaway and motor away to a very impressive win on the Queen Stage. Smart right? Yeah, I thought so.After about 25km of racing I was in a great move, big numbers, all teams present, although the pair of RadioShack riders in the break were (wisely) keen on shutting it down. So after a nice 10 minutes off the front, we were reeled in. I was in the midst of hitting reset and getting ready to go into the next move again when there was a cattle guard that took down a lot of riders. Nastily. Probably a dozen guys went down in total including a pair of cyclists suffering ugly fractures (one back, one face... uuugh, hate hearing that), also including Basso and myself. Thankfully as Timmy pointed out, "Ted King's bionically repaired shoulder merely dented the cattleguard." Not entirely true, but I'm happy(?) to say that I did land on my left side and that my shoulder feels completely normal. My hip, however, is a bit bruised up.I'm good though.So let's now fast-forward though the 22km of dirt on Cottonwood, the mud, the incredible fans, the weather, the wet scary descent, then onto and up over Independence where we had the same as Cottonwood, but raised to the power of Independence (i.e. more of all of the aforementioned stuff). Continue fast forwarding until we descend into Aspen. Ooh la la, my FAMILY!Of particular note is Dad's awesome crown, Mom's awesome cycling cap that reads, "One Tough Mother" which screams the truth, plus the entire collection of iamnotTedKing t-shirts present. Even though Dad is Ted King. Plus Lindsay toting Paradise muffins and cookies for all to share. And now the close up of the fam. Mind you, this is the first BIG race Mom and Dad have witnessed firsthand. So needless to say, I'm elated to have them here.Love you guys (that is, mostly Mom and Dad... but I love my readers as well)