Thankfully no rain for today's race and the roads were bone dry. Everything started out innocuously enough; easy roll off the start, so within a couple miles I thought I'd take a dig on a descent managed to stay away for a little while but I was hoping to be joined in my breakaway efforts but it was not to be. My legs certainly needed some rest after the dig and I sat in the pack getting pulled along, taking a pull every now and again. Finally the group's constant surging and slacking (wholly unable to maintain a constant speed), constantly braking, constantly jumping out of the saddle to hold a wheel, drove me insane and while some little guy was holding a ridiculously low pace I shot off the front, again hoping to be joined by a small group but yet again was all alone; this time I managed to stay away even longer, but I knew that with half the race left I wouldn't be able to stay away on my own for the whole time. Despite sitting up and soft pedaling it still took the peloton half a lap to catch up with me. After another couple of miles, two of the strongest riders (one of them has won twice this year, came second today and is an Ironman just bike racing to improve his cycling splits) attacked and I jumped--at first alone, but eventually joined by three others-- to try and cover but they were too strong. Got sweeped up by the peloton and we eventually caught the other two (both were on S-works Venges wearing black kit, if you're curious to find them in the pics). Relatively uneventful after that besides the poor form surging, until the finale when I got caught, yet again, too many wheels back to seriously factor in the finish and I think I ended up 12th. All photos labeled "Team SixCycle" are obviously from "Team SixCycle"while all other photos are from SKN Photography. Check out the FB links for the full galleries, pictures below are only of my group.
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