Thanks for your race report, RoboCyclist. Well done on staying with the bunch. This was my first ride in the A group. The group was fast, and the early attacks jacked the pace up. I see from your figures that the group got slightly slower as the ride went on. I went anaerobic in the first five km. My water bottle went flying on the mini speed bumps at about 20km. It being a R60 Elite Scalatore 1l bottle. I stopped to pick it up. The cap was smashed. I didn't even try catch you guys, as soon enough BL came flashing by. Talk about extremes, whereas AL seemed like a well-oiled machine, BL couldn't get going. Another rider and I drove the buch for 60km, but we were battling to keep going at even 35 km/h. 20km from the line a few CL riders bridged and cranked the pace. The sprint was a tame affair, with only a few riders bothering. There was a fair amount of aggro in BL. Shouting at a junior on restricted gears for not taking a longer turn at the front, or almost coming to blows because someone got too close in a field sprint when you're battling for 5th place in the B group defies logic. In spite of this minor quibble, a fine day's racing. Looking forward to the Jock, when staying with the bunch for a guy like me of 95kg is going to take some doing on those climbs.
