This race was great for the team, ok for me. We wanted to get Jacob in the break because we knew that he would crush anyone he was with after 150km and after a ton of attacks in the first 70 km, eventually Jacob went and took two guys with him. The field rode hard for another 10 km, where the break was holding 30 seconds. Then they sat up. Then the break had 3 minutes. Then 5 minutes. Then 8 minutes. Then 12 minutes. Then they started chasing. It was about 90 km to go, 120 in. We went super hard up a hill, split the (greatly reduced) peleton into two groups of about 15. Chris, Berling, and I were in the front, but Linde was too far back when the shit hit the fan so missed the front group. Thinking everything was good in the peleton, Michael decided to go back up to the break, and then 20 seconds later, I got a front flat, couldn't make a gentle corner and fell into a muddy field. It was great cause it felt like landing on a bunch of pillows. Another car eventually gave me a new wheel but by then I was in the second group. I was kind of pissed because I though the race was over, so I waited for a few minutes until we hit the next set of hills, then I just started going as hard as I could up everything hoping to either catch back, or at least really punish all of those guys in the second group cause they were pulling like a bunch of cat 3s. It kind of worked. We eventually got back, but it was basically only Linde and I chasing. So the two of us closed a 45 secondish gap by ourselves while 6 or 7 guys were on the front of the first group setting tempo. It took about 30 minutes of hard chasing.
Needless to say after that i was a little tired, and that was when we started the six 9km finishing laps. Each lap had a steep hill going up to the finish line. And I would basically go backwards on it. There were a ton more attacks from the peleton and the group exploded. Berling had a couple of bad punctures, the second one made Linde give up his wheel and that was the end of Linde's race. But Berling kept attacking and eventually got into a group racing for 10th. Chris was in a group racing for 6th and got 9th. Berling flatted again and ended up like 16th. I ended up in a group that was basically done racing. So I waited until the last lap and then attacked right before the hill and rode the last lap by myself to come in somewhere maybe 20th. It was a bit stupid though because I got to within 30 or 40 seconds of a group in front of me, so if I had gone a lap earlier I could have gotten like 5 places higher. I didn't really realize how tired everyone was. But then again I haven't done that many 130 mile hilly races in 46 degree rain before. In fact this was the first one.
Still I think I would have been in the top 10 if I didn't puncture when I did, so I think the form is there for Fleche du Sud. I am going to tell the guys to ride for me at that race. I am tired of being the one covering all of the moves in the first 80 km. Actually today was kind of cool. I think I spent 20 km from like 50-70km into the race sitting 4th wheel.... some guys would attack, I would just slot on the wheel, they'd go hard for a little while, then sit up. Then someone else would go, I'd get into 4th wheel, sit there for a bit, and so on. I don't think I was outside the top 15 for more then a few minutes until just before Jacob's break went. Thats pretty good.
Oh yeah, and Jacob basically rode away from the other two guys. First with 30 km to go, then he punctured and got caught. Then again with 15 km to go. So we were right, he did crush them after a while.
Overall the day was 6 hours, 5100 KJ, and TSS score of 423. That is my hardest day ever by far.
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