First lap, spent some time on the front closing down a break. Had a teammate who wanted to get some points from a field sprint finish. We were trying to keep things fairly together and fast. Unfortunately, a crash later in the lap took down the teammate we were racing for. He was later able to catch back up but burnt all his matches in the processes.
Second lap, pace was high and I was sitting second wheel. Guy in front looks back, sees just me, another person and a ~200 meter gap back to the pack. Asks the two of us if we want to give the break a shot. I confirm while the third guy declines and sits up.
Photo of the two of us going off the front and the third guy dropping back:
We took turns and eventually got the break up to almost 2 minutes. The other guy was a good bit bigger and stronger then me and did at least three-fourths the work. However, back in the pack, my Webcor/AV teamates were doing their best to disrupt and slow things down.
Unfortunately, when we hit 2 min, it apparently lit a fire in the pack and a number of people moved to the front and drove the pace up. We were caught on the third lap after being off the front for 22 miles (about an hour).
The remaining half a lap was fairly uneventful. My legs were trashed and I was unable to contest the uphill sprint. Finished 18th of 38 starters. Still, it was a ton of fun to get out there and put everything on the line. There was a few moments I thought I might be able to get second!
