End of an ending

After a couple of hours out in the wind, we came to a screaching hautly with about a kilo to go. My first thought was thats not good for anybody. There were two groups of two within a few seconds of us. Would they have gotten caught? It is an impossible answer, but the more important matter at hand was the guy laying in the middle of the road bleeding out. It truely is hard to keep yourself in the game at that point. The riders off the front deserved their shot, but the situation could have been handled much better. Again.

I had done my best all day to cover and counter, and made most of the dangerous moves. Including a 15 man group that seemed to just roll off the front. Not knowing I was in a move for the first 5 minutes I just watched as they rolled through. After awhile I took a look back to see the wheel truck. Could we have a gap? Had it already gone out to a minute? I guess I just wasn't paying attention. With 4 strong Mesa riders in the move and two Big Shark I figured I would join in for awhile and see what happened. But, as there were so many people and some conflicting personalities it was doomed from the start. When I saw a mass of blue on the front of the chase I softpedaled through for while, but the chase looked to be stretched to the limit.

What a day. I felt great, we worked hard. And, I feel completely deflated because the fun was sapped right out of me in the end. In this case, the end of the race was a Kilo from the finish.