I rolled over to the race start at 8:00 and found a sunny spot to stay warm since I was rolling minimalist style, no arm warmers, despite the chill. I can't even begin to guess how many starters we had today, but the field didn't look to be as big as last week. There was one number I made note of from the list posted in the race program and that was the number of the winner of the time trial.
Going up the first hill was a bit faster than last week, but I was taking the Mike Carter approach, floating towards the back of the pack, doing as little as possible. So far, so good . . . In the first 5k I didn't miss anything. Since in the past, people have tended to get squirrely on the approach to Schwendt and the road narrows on the climb, I started to move up a bit so as not to get stuck behind anything. I was not terribly surprised when I saw the winner of the time trial go shooting up the right side where the climb got steep.
On the descent, I could see a group of six coming together, but since it was still very early, I wasn't too concerned, I was going to stick to the plan of making my move on the third lap. The lead group was staying in sight and I was tucked back towards the back of our group, still biding my time.
The second trips over the climbs were not too terribly exciting, a small group tried to bridge, but didn't get anywhere. They were reabsorbed when I kept my speed coming out of Schwendt, instead of sitting up and looking around like everybody tends to do. This kept the group rolling skipping the lull that occurred every lap prior.
At this point in the race, the leaders were out of sight and people started looking around at each other instead of working. That might have had something to do with the fact that there were even more Italians in this race than last week! I started paying closer attention to the front and saw that other riders were getting very slow to respond to attacks. I started following wheels as riders half attacked, half simply rolled away. After unsuccessfully trying to encourage these small groups to organize and work together, I started one of these groups on my own. By just applying a little pressure after a little jump, a group of five us got clear and started putting time on the field. A couple more riders came across on the flats and by the time we got to the Huberhohe climb, we had already built a gap of a minute.
The group continued to work well with a few hiccups every now and again, mostly due to Italians not pulling through, but not sitting at the back either. I could definitely feel my efforts as we went over the hill at Schwendt. After the steeper part, I got back in the big ring and quickly closed the gap I had opened on myself. By this time, we could see the lead group and as we approached the last little hump on the course, the gap was coming down. Cresting the hill would have been the opportune time to try to jump the gap . . . after that, the Italians stopped pulling through all together which left three, occasionally five of us working. At the turn to Kirchdorf, the few of us that were still working had resigned ourselves to keeping a steady pace so we wouldn't get caught from anybody chasing. Then, the attacks started coming. Fortunately the Italians started covering the attacks, making it pretty easy to just catch a wheel. Hindsight being what it is, I should have realized that nobody really wanted to cover anything any more. An attack from 4k out with a steady effort would have likely taken less energy than trying to get away on the run into the finish with 2k to go.
The guy who made that move ended up 6th, the rest of us were left to duke it out. I crawled my way back to the back of the group after a flurry of activity and tried to jump everybody at 200m to go. That didn't work out so well for me since I didn't get much of a gap when I went, leaving me in the position of leading the sprint out. That didn't work out so well for me either and I ended the day 14th. I won't complain too much since that is by far my best result in the UCI and Weltpokal road races. I was happy that I was a little more intelligent and aware in this race, enough so to be part of a significant move and finish nearly two minutes ahead of the field with some more lessons learned.
I wasn't surprised to see who had won the race, nor did it surprise me that the Italians swept the podium. In fact 4 of the top 5 were Italian as were 9 of the top 15. Apparently their clubs all have this as a big goal race since it is not a very long trip for them. The winner finished the 116k in 2:39.55 and an average speed of just over 27 mph. Proof of results and transportation back to the hotel to finish packing . . .
So ends the 2008 cycling season for yours truly. This year was a good one with improvements all around. I was faster at Cherry Creek with a best time of 21:13, I cut a minute off of my time at Worlds, I got a respectable result and a nice trophy in the road race, I should end the season top 10 in BAR (depends on the stupid race added for next weekend I suppose), and I learned a few more things that should help me in future races.
Odds are I'll be back to riding Saturday when I get home, but for now as soon as the bike bag hits the luggage room in Hotel Blauer Bock, the contents will have their own little vacation. I won't make into Munich in time to do anything today, so nothing left to do but hit one of the many beer gardens close to the hotel.
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