Plan A was to stay out of trouble and conserve energy early in the race. Unfortunately we kicked it over to Plan B pretty quickly. The unupdated Krughblog attacked early as he is getting a reputation for doing and quickly got a gap of over a minute on the field as there was little response. When Steve Forbes from Vitamin Cottage started out to bridge the gap, I got up to his wheel because I didn't think anything good was going to come of how slowly we were going, with nobody willing to keep the pace respectable. Brad Cole from Legacy Energy quickly (albeit awkwardly from what I hear) joined us and we started working smoothly to join Allen up the road.
We caught Allen just after Centennial (if you look at the profile on the map, that is the first bump at about 17 miles) and ditched Steve in the process which worked out quite nicely. That forced Jon Baker to the front of the group since VC was no longer represented in the move. After the chase ended back in the group our gap quickly got up to about five minutes. We kept our effort steady with Brad and I splitting most of the work, Allen still recovering from his early adventures.
About the time Baker got to the front, Kevin drifted back to find Blake Caldwell and Mike Creed. Timing can be everything in a bike race and Kevin hit it pretty much spot on. Blake attacked hard from about 15 riders back, Kevin, Creed and Ian Gray from Nebraska on his wheel. They got the gap and nobody else was able to respond. Meanwhile up the road, we were still keeping our steady pace heading towards the summit. The chase group caught up to us just before the summit so we were seven riders strong rolling down to the turnaround at Ryan Park. At the turn around the gap to the next group back seemed like it was only 2-3 minutes with Lachlan Morton of Real Aussie Kids trying to bridge the gap solo.
After the turn around, the pace remained civil and sustainable for me until Creed applied some pressure and the original three of us came unhitched. I spent forever in no mans land waiting for the chasers to catch me. That catch did not come until after about 10k of solo climbing. I stayed with Lachlan as long as possible before slipping off of his wheel and then watched the group with Baker, Andrew Barker, Porter and the Rio cadre, as well as the Legacy Energy bunch roll past. I unsuccessfully tried to hang onto Paul Esposti as he went by just before the summit of the second climb but spent some more time in the select company of my inner demons. I descended alone, rode the highway from Centennial back to Hwy 11 alone, died a thousand deaths, and finally tacked myself onto the back of the group Doug Manno was rolling in with.
I was done for the day, barely clinging on to this group, coming unhitched about 2k from the finish losing a minute and a half on the final climb to the finish. There's no shame in 20th place earned the hard way, especially when Kevin's group finished six minutes and change up the road, effectively ending the race for all but the top four. Tim cruised in at 34th, his work for the day done as well.
We vacated our trailer home faster than a tornado and headed into Laramie for some food and culture. We stopped off at the old train depot to verify results and TT start times.
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