The pace was pretty fast from the beginning. I wanted to make my way up to the front, but so did everyone else. It took me like five laps to get up there, but by then a few groups had gotten off the front. I'm not capable of being in an hour and a half long breakaway anyway, so I knew it was time to sit on. Sometimes you have to take the risk that the race will go up the road, and this time it did.
One guy who I guess won the day before managed to attack one of the breaks and he lapped the field. When I saw his teammate bring him by me I knew they were going to the front to drill it, so I moved up again. His teammates seemed to be driving it pretty hard, but in a field that big it's easy to sit in so I couldn't really tell how fast we were going.
At the end, a few attacks went away from our group, which I think was the main field. I was sort of baffled when guys weren't grabbing those wheels, but then again I didn't either so I can't really say anything. And most of those guys raced the previous few days. Apparently there was a separation somewhere behind me so our group wasn't that big. The announcer said that our group still had some money spots available, so I stayed toward the front and sprinted for fifth or so in the group. It was only good for 46th place though, which was a surprise to me since I didn't think there were more than 18 or so guys left up the road. Well, I guess that's what happens when the field is so big that you can't see the front of it from anywhere on the course. It was a hot day, a fast race, with plenty of corners, and I was never in any difficulty. That's good because I haven't felt too good on the bike the last few weeks. Hopefully I'm coming out of it.
