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Pine Flat Road Race- 2/19/06
-Category: 3
-8 Hours of sleep
-Muesli for breakfast
-Place: 9th
-Distance: 62 miles
Teammates: Tyler, Lars, JP
Having done this race the previous year, I had a very loose idea of how the race would unfold. Last year, the decisive split was made on the steep and long uphill that preceded the decent and flat section that eventually came to the last kilometer which was an uphill climb to the finish. My legs were a little tired from yesterday, so for the first half of the race, I just sat in the group and tried to conserve my energy the best I could and wait till the hill. Having the vague notion that the group would only split on that steep climb, I decided to sit about 6th wheel going into the beginning of the climbs. However, after the sharp right hand turn, three riders got off the front. At this point, I had no idea where the group was at the race and which climb was the climb. Riders started dropping backward. However, I wasnąt feeling that bad at this point and after Tyler yelled at me to catch up, I jumped away from the group.
After that, I was stuck between the three riders in front with a 5 second gap and the peloton behind me with a 10 second gap. After ascending the climb, I put in a hard effort to catch them on the decent, but I was not able to bridge the gap. The chasing group caught up to me and in spite of the hard chase effort, we were not able to catch the three in front. Coming up to the climb, my legs were hurting, but I was out of energy as well. I was constantly yo-yoing off the rider in front of me going up the climb. The group of 4 in front of me had about a 5 second gap when I crested the climb. Eventually, another rider caught up to me and we worked together to reel in the four riders at about 1 kilometers to go. At this point, I was dead. I simply had no energy left. I felt like I had no energy to stand up or move. After getting dropped at the 1K sign, I rode the last hill by myself to the finish line, where I felt like I was about to fall over. I need more fuel!!!! |
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