Posted for Daniel Tisdell
Going into the race, I went in really focused. I was kind of mad for not doing so well in the time trial. When we started, I got in the top 10 riders almost instantly. I was somewhat familiar with the course, and sat in the front of the group the first lap. One attack got off the front towards the last part of that lap, and held about 20 seconds on the field. The next lap, I started looking for a way to get into the break, or see if the pack would catch it. Twice, they closed it down to 8 seconds gap, but never went the final gap to catch it. I figured if they could hold off the field, they could have a good chance of staying away. On the third lap, my main goal was to bridge that gap, and not take many riders with me. This proved to be difficult. Everyone would respond to the slightest attack. I sat up until I got to the hilly area of the course, then did a attack, and got a gap on the field. I started to bridge the gap on my own, and after a few hard minutes, I caught them at the steepest part of the course. After a moments of rest, and draft, I integrated myself into the group. After a few pulls, I saw that the were really disorganized. A minute later, two other riders bridged, while one guy fell off. Almost instantly from the time the two bridged, a rider attacked our breakaway over the top of the hill. That attack caught me in a weak point, after I had just pulled in the wind. I fell off in a few seconds of the attack, and submerged into the pack again. Soon I was on my 4th lap, seeing if the break would be caught, and seeing if anyone was going to try to bridge. Larson, this years TT champion went off a few times, only to be sucked back into the pack. I sat in the top 15 riders seeing how the field was trying to catch the breakaway. As we went through to start our 5th lap, even though the pack started chasing the breakaway, the pack was 28 seconds back. I sat in that whole lap, waiting for the opportune moment, but it never came. As I went into the 6th lap, I was really eager to do something, but no opportunities ever came. The pack did manage to close the gap to 24 seconds though. As I came about 5k from the finish with 1 more lap to go, I saw Larson and Adam attack, getting 5 seconds on the field. I immediately attacked, and easily got away because it was on a hill. I caught onto them, and started rotating with them as I started out on my last lap. From there, it was grueling hard, and took a crazy amount of effort to try to close the gap. Just a minute after we started our last lap, Adam was dropped from our chase group. I knew I could not get there alone, and hoped that Larson could bridge as good as he could time trial. Only a few minutes later, I knew we had a good chance working together. He and I pulled strong, and took equal 15 second pulls. About halfway through the last lap, we bridged to the lead breakaway, making the break 5 riders. Just a second after we made it there, almost the same place that I fell of last time, someone attacked. I was ready this time. I sucked wheels, and everyone soon came back together on the downhill. I encouraged everyone to work together until the turnaround up the hill. After we went around it, no one wanted to pull. I watched the pack sitting a dangerous 20 seconds back, as no one would pull. We had 2k to go, and less than 15 seconds on the field, but still no one was pulling through. I waited 1 more kilometer, and our gap came to 8 seconds. From there, I attacked, and dropped everyone but one guy. He ended up sprinting around me right at the finish, and I took second place.
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