Pas Trop Mal

Another bike soiree on sunday. 126k, 17 laps. Divide the two, and you'll get the length of the course. It was absolutely flat. No gradients greater than 2%. The biggest "hill" was the finale: a 100 meter uphill kick. This would also serve as the launching point for attacks, and the place to battle for the primes that were up for grabs. Other than that, just flat-town, all around. Lots of twists and turns and narrow roads, and plenty of rain. I knew after the warm-up lap that positioning was key here (when isn't it? But here more than usual). Splits tend to happen frequently on the narrow twisty courses like this where 10 seconds can get you out of sight.


We start. No surprises here: this was the hardest and fastest part of the race. I'm getting used to it, however. You just need to convince the bod not to panic, and that "it'll all be over soon." Once we make the break. First lap I went with a couple moves. 4 guys, 6 guys. Nothing. But, it isn't a wasted effort by any means. It keeps me up front, seeing the action, and if anything gets more than a couple meters, I go. No questions, no "oh, i'll go with the next one." No. After going with every single move in the first two laps, the most unlikely one stuck....17 guys sneaked off. Me among them. End of the 2nd lap, we had 10 seconds. End of the 3rd, 30, then 45, then 1:00+, etc etc. Gone. The sad part is, I find out these "stats" after the race. If I knew we had friggin 5 minutes (!!!) at the end, I wouldn't have gone to the front at all, and saved some juice for a nice solo move or two. Anyhow, yes. We were gone. UCA had 1 in 17 odds in this break, while every other team had at least 2 (one team, the winning team, had 5 riders in this move). I know if C-Walk was here he'd have been in the move with me. Sigh.


Normally, the 1 in 17 odds would be fine with me. I can sprint with any of these guys, and on a course like this, should be able to go with anything. However, the sprint legs weren't with me today. Perhaps it was the rain, or the wayyyyyy stiffer feel of the new wheels that I'm not fully used to yet, but the snap. I forgot it at home. I was cognizant of this, and sought to attack a couple times to split the group. The group eventually shrank from 17 to 14 by the last lap. I took special note of who had been resting, who had been working, when to attack, where to attack, etc etc. All for naught. As is always the case, a little half-attack containing 5 riders went midway through the last lap. The team with 5 riders sat with the remaining 9-man chase group, and it was game over. I finished 2nd in the remaining group of 9 to end up 7th on the day. My best result of the year.


It's nice to be able to get a result despite the shite week last week, and equally reassuring to pull out a result despite mediocre legs. The new wheels were fantastic...not so much the deep section rims, but the tires. Tubulars. Ahhh...it'd been too long. So smooth, even at 130psi (though with the surprise rain, 110-120 would have been even more amazing). Again, I went home with 2 envelopes. One check, and some cash from a prime. Purchasing items with race winnings is always a symbolic undertaking. For instance, the laptop this blog is typed on was bought on last year's superweek winnings. Yesterday, I bought (among other, less symbolic things) a baby olive tree. Something tangible, something to remember the day by. It sits on my windowsill, lookin' all nice, generating oxygen, being green.