Roughly halfway through the race, I found myself on the front at the start of the climb before the finish line and I accidentally gapped the field on my way up. One guy bridged up to me, but I didn't really know what to make of the situation as I had no desire to be in a breakaway. After a drink and a breath, my companion surged ahead through the north turn. I was ready to sit up and wait, but that effort was enough to make me get on his wheel and go. So we have this gap and I keep turning around to look at this gap and to figure out what I want to do and whether or not to commit to this thing and I'm looking at the gap again and I turn back forward and I'm into the guy's back wheel way too close and our wheels gently embrace each other and whoops down I go onto my left side.
So I get up pretty quick and I'm not hurt. I look back and I still have that damn gap! I get on my bike and go -- still the gap! I should just stop going and wait for the field, but I'm so embarrassed about falling off my bike for no good reason that I power back up to my breakaway companion. We went down the hill to the stretch before the south turn that's exposed to the sea and is really windy -- the place were breakaways go to die. I start my pull and my rational mind finally asserts control and I sit up and wait.
Fast forward to about 3 laps to go and Brad gets into a four man break. He's already exceeded all expectations by staying in the front of the field and now this! The guy doesn't ride his bike that much but an athlete is an athlete. This is great for the team, obviously; there's not much race left and everyone else is starting to get really nervous. Thanks to this,
Brad had come back to the field, but there were still three up the road by maybe 20 seconds.
I bridged up to the break and immediately counterattacked it through the turn and went solo from there. I got down the road, up and over the climb with a gap, but I got picked up about 50 meters from the line by the winner, who rolled right past on the right side. I had no answer to that, but there was enough time to think about second place and its merits before two others rolled past on the left just before the finish. I got fourth. I have no effort regrets, but it would be fun to see what would have happened if I had gone from the bottom of the climb like I had planned.
All the MRC guys were in the mix today -- a great team race! I'm jazzed for next weekend.