Contacts Taking Forever to sync!

[B737]

itunes 9.0
3GS w 3.1.2 blackra1n on AT&T

i used to use google sync to manage contacts over the air. I switched it back to just having itunes manage contacts.

now when i sync the phone it spends about 4 full minutes syncing contacts, the rest of the sync goes by just fine.

Ideas?

[B737]

I wanted to revisit this after finding some additional information and testing. the problem still isnt resolved. BUT...

i have restored the phone, set it up as a new device. Then in iTunes i checked sync address book from google. The sync once again took forever on the freshly set up device, tried it twice, i just sits on syncing contacts for about 3-4 full minutes. So its either an issue with my particular address book in google or an issue with the tie in to google contacts.

i switched back to google active sync over the air, and disabled the contact sync in itunes on my PC and its back to syncing very fast again.

im just reluctant to use googles exchange active sync because the issue i had with IT, is... i would go to assign a ringtone or caller ID photo to a contact and it would dump and reload the entire address book, and wipe out all my custom ring tone assignments.

either way, both issues are annoying! so far...google active sync is behaving thus far...

iphone 3GS blackra1n, 3.1.2 PC w/ win7