Tokeneke

[pcollins]

P/1/2

Very hot. Loaded up on ice socks and drenched myself in water before the start. After the first major climb on the backstretch, Dugan went off the front solo. Tim Ahearn, Harris, Dan NM and I formed a chase group on the flat section at the top of the climb, 30 mins into the race. A junior bridged up to us and we caught Dugan, forming a strong 6 man break. We were working hard (except for Dugan, who was tailgunning for ~ a lap), and I wanted to push the pace to establish a solid gap on the field. Our gap was big enough to get Sram Neutral support behind us, which had neutral water, which was great.

Harris was the first to drop, on the second time up North Hollow, then the junior dropped on the backstretch climb (which was very sunny/hot due to lack of tree cover). It was 4 of us with ~1.5 laps to go, and I started feeling bad. The third time up North Hollow was the nail in the coffin for me, I was toast with 1 lap to go. I stayed with the break (only pulling through a few times) until the backstretch climb, where Ahearn and Dugan pulled away from Dan and I. I was barely hanging on to Dan. He was expecting me to work but I wasn’t (as I was suffering badly). I grabbed a water bottle from the moto ref and was refilling my bottle and Dan attacked me. I was then solo and in bad spirits but kept pedaling. If I knew that Dan was going to attack me I definitely would have worked with him more, but “that’s bike racing” and I understand why he did what he did.

Kai Wiggins caught me after I was solo for ~10 mins and was kind enough to let me hang on his wheel, as he knew I was blown and wasn’t a threat. On the descent, he supertucked (on the top-tube) and wasn’t pedaling, while I was struggling to stay with him pedaling at 400w (not supertucked). That was the first time I’ve been dropped on a descent, granted he is significantly heavier than I am.

I was solo on the final climb and knew I had to keep a reasonable pace if I wanted to hold onto fifth place and not get passed by the chase group of 2 CCB guys and Ansel Dickey, who were in sight. My body felt like it was about to shut down but I forced myself to hold 235w for the last 12ish mins to the finish and wasn’t caught by the guys behind me, finishing 5th/54, which I’m very happy with. Due to the heat, and being in the break for almost 90% of the 4 hour, 145km race, I’d consider this the hardest race I’ve done thus far.

[JeremyC]

Nice report. I can feel the suffering in the words. Great job, long hot and hilly, a bad combo

[Jacob]

Great result! That descent is the fastest, most non-technical thing I've ever seen in a bike race.

[pcollins]

Thanks guys!
Jacob, I think the whole course is non-technical. The only time I touched my brakes was when I was in the peloton on the first descent.

[PJ McQuade]

Such a hard race WITHOUT the heat. Unreal, PC.