Le tour de F is a flat course. 20 ish mile laps, 5 laps, just under 80 miles. I developed a chest cold the night before, which I felt did not affect my race at all. The race started off raining making it kind of miserable. The goal for today was to watch the big teams, mainly Bissell, to make sure I was in any break that looked good. Out of all the teams there, Bissell was the team that wasn't going to miss the break, so I based my efforts on that.
The 3rd lap I got in a break of about 10 riders that slipped away from the field. Even though the break was big, we rotated fairly well, with only one rider sitting in (Bissell had only one rider in the break.) I was OK with racing for second place. Another group of 10 bridged up and we started attacking from the break. Eventually everything got back together by the next lap.
When we got brought back, I fell to the back of the field, while the winning break with both Williams brothers rolls away with 4 others. I hear Bissell talking about how they wanted to bridge, they only had one rider in the break, and I looked for the next move to go up the road.
By the last lap, nothing has escaped from the field yet, and there was still attack after attack, but people were losing their snap. Finally one Bissell and green team rider (named the green team, because I don't know who they are,) had a small gap on the field, with a wolverine bridging. I jumped across with a Dayton rider and we had a group of 5 that the field let go.
We worked together the last 5 miles or so to the finish, I had myself pegged for second out of the break. The one Bissell rider was a great sprinter, and a couple of the other riders were having trouble pulling through. We rolled into the final k and took the left turn onto the finishing straight with a good gap on the field. I see the people lined on the side of the road cheering us on and I jump. I went for about 5 seconds when I realized the finish line was waaaaay too far away. I looked back and the Bissell rider has a big smile on his face as we both realized my mistake at the same time. He jumps around me, taking 7th by a long shot. The other three riders competed in the sprint and I tried to jump on their wheels, but alas, I am an idiot. So last out of the break, 11th for the day, just inside the money.
Shout out to David Williams who took the win.
Next week is West Branch. There is some climbing so hopefully it will be more exciting than the flat race we had today.
JZ
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