climb slow, descend fast

start with yesterday's race. 70-something mile race. there was a hill in it, but it was a pretty easy grade. for a lot of guys, it was a big ringer. i little ringed it cause i like the chain-line better. i can spin it better. anyway, it couldn't break the pack up much. if the prologue was an insane fight for position, it was only worse at this race. like i said before, 130 riders is way too many to put in one lane. especially when everyone of them thinks he can win. guys were again riding blatantly over the yellow line. there were huge cracks and holes in the pavement as well, so guys trying to avoid those holes would nearly crash guys. it was insane. i've never been so on edge in a race for so long. we were packed in tight. dan took the first kom. they worked the other riders in brilliant fashion. on the second kom solomon and tory set a good tempo but dan went a tad early and was aced out. ah well. in the first sprint (where we didn't have full road) i was boxed in. way boxed in. i just couldn't get any where. again, riders were riding on the left side of the road--for long periods of time. if you wanted in on the sprint, you just had to. there were a lot of attacks, but the field just wouldn't let anything go. guys chased their teammates down. it was ridiculous. sean and i got into one promising break, but again, they just wouldn't let it go. for the final sprint we figured on leading me out with tom and sean on my wheel. that way we could get a good result and those guys could get more points for their overall standings. it was a pretty strange sprint. at about 15 km to go, the pack just shut down. but because it was so tight, nobody could move up to do anything. physical blocking. what can you do? it was super dodgy. we all came so incredibly close to crashing so many times. insane. as things were ramping up, troy got me near the front, but we were on the right.. we were in an ok position, but then at 1 km a group came way over the yellow line and led out and we were suddenly screwed. i jumped and got what i figure was a top ten. tom was on my wheel and a few places back. however, because all the yellow line violations for the intermediate sprint and the final sprint were so blatant, they nullified those. damn. the whole thing was pretty stupid. nobody ramped it up because nobody could get to the front to do it. it was just impossible.
before today's stage there was a rider protest. we didn't start when they wanted to start us. some well spoken blokes chatted with the organizer. they basically told him that it was ridiculous and since he'd taken in some $15,000 in entry fees, he could at least get more than one moto to enforce the yellow line rule (since it wasn't enforced on saturday but was draconianly punished). the outcome was that riders that were relegated were reinstated but point penalties stood.
so today. dan is high in the KOM competition. there's a sprint at 18.5 miles. again, lots of attacks. nobody would let any go (suprising). but then one went. and they let it go. i was right there, but totally pinned in. i figured it would get chased down, so i didn't take the risks to get it. i'll bet it was the same for everybody else. they built up their lead and we worked on the front and held the gap steady until the first climb. i went backwards pretty fast, as did troy. up the climb the break was caught just after the KOM. damn. i got over the top with a group and promptly dropped them on the descent. i've never see a bunch of guys with such big asses descend so slow. it was ridiculous. we caught the pack pretty quickly, but man it was frustrating. weak. they were so weak. i got back to the front but we didn't have to work too much. there were a lot of attacks and a few guys got off the front. nothing that could really stick too long. dan wasn't feeling hot so he set tempo to keep the attacks down. eventually i got the race leader's team (target training) to do some work with us. lots of the teams were pretty content to let the break keep going. when the gap finally got to 2:30 they went to the front. middle climb wasn't too long but it was damned steep. probably 12-15%. and then it kicked at the end. kicked hard. solomon broke his chain, which was too bad. i was counting on him being up with tom and sean on the final climb to help a bit. ah well. what are you going to do? dan popped hard on the climb. the descent from there was super duper fast. i hit 62 mph. that's a new record for me. i also nearly went into the ditch cause a i didn't set up for a long sweeper quite right. ha! screw you noah! the break was still off and so i went to the front with fior di fruta and worked to bring them back. we brought back the target training guy that had been dangling, so they had to go to the front to protect their guy. finally! well, there were a few steep pitches that really socked me after working. and then the couple miles of hard pack dirt and gravel. we finally hit the final climb and i put my anchor down. yep, i was wasted. cooked. blown. i did the last 10 miles alone. damn that finish climb, only a two miles or so, killed me. the final 500 meters was 18%. i was seeing stars. i barely barely barely made it. a race official had to push my broken carcass off the road because i couldn't pedal any more. tom finished 4th and sean was in the top ten too. good finishes. some teams gave us crap about using all of our guys up, but i think we played things about right. losing solomon to a chain break was unfortunate, but what are you going to do. not like i was going to be any good on that final climb.
everybody finished though. that's good. that's guts. damn, if i'd fallen off on the first climb, i'd have turned around and gone home!