Deer Trail RR

Deer Trail (74 miles) - My goal was to get in the early break, so Brent, Marty and Lance could sit in. The race was active from the start. First move went about 6 miles in, with a group of 4. I tried to bridge, but the pack wouldn't let me go, so I helped bring the group back. As soon as we caught them there was a solo counter, then a minute later, another solo move to bridge. At this point, I was recovering, and had drifted back 10 places. We hit the turnaround, and another group of 6 got off, including Brent. This move should have stuck. All the large teams were represented except for 2, and most of the teams at the front were blocking for teamates up the road making it difficult to form a chase. I was hanging about 15th in the pack keeping an eye on things. At this point several guys started blowing the yellow line, moving up 30 spaces, or trying to bridge to the break. This happened repeatedly over the next 40 miles. These were such bullshit moves. The whole pack was calling the dudes out, but they kept doing it. The moto ref was with the break, so he was no help.

Brent said there were 2 guys in the break of 8 that wouldn't work, and after repeated attempts of trying to drop them, the break was brought back. When I saw
they were going to get caught, I moved up to ~7th place waiting for the counter, but as we caught them a handful of guys flew the yellow line again, and I got boxed in behind the guys getting caught from the break. So another group of 6 got off, but were quickly reeled back with some help from Lance who had moved up. At this point I was sitting about 20th, but wasn't too worried, as Lance was now covering moves.
We then went through town, getting ready for the last 25 miles of rollers, and Lance flatted right before the first roller and feed zone. Brent was sitting in recovering from the break, and Marty was somewhere behind me. Of course a group of 5 got off through the feedzone and we weren't represented. The last 25 miles are lot of huge rollers, so if we let them have a minute or two, it could be hard to get them back. I then saw Marty who said he was feeling good, and moved up to Brent to see how he was. He said he had recovered and was feelin good as well, so I decided I would go to the front and help work to bring the break back, while they sat in. I went to the front helped push the pace over the next 12 miles. We ended up catching the break right before the 2nd to last turnaround, leaving 12 miles. At this point I thought the race would start to split up so I stayed very close to the front covering any late moves. We made it to the last turnaround, and I was starting to feel pretty worked, and it looked like it was going to stay together till right before the finish so I drifted to the back to recover. There ~40 left in the main pack. From the previous 2 times I had done this race, the group splits up on the last two rollers leaving plenty of time to move up once the road opened up, so I
decided to wait for that. However this time 4 guys blocked the front, not allwoing anyone to get around and held the pack together until the last 200m, when guys started crossing the yellow line (again). At this point I was still on the back, and lost my nerve to even try to pick some guys off in a 40+ bunch sprint, so I just tailed in on the back of the group safe and sound. Marty got 13th, Brent got boxed in from yellow line passer for 21st, and I rolled in 36th.

I was happy with my performance, as I was active all day, and did a lot of work for the team.

I was frustrated with how the race turned out, especially with all the yellow line crossings. I was working hard to move up, and maintain my position with 86 guys, when they would just take a flyer to the left passing 30 guys. As a team I thought we did fairly well with only 4 guys considering there were 5 teams that had 6+. I thought with that many large teams a break would get away, or the last 12-15 miles would be hard enough to split it up. I never thought we would roll all the way to the finish with 40+. I guess if I wanted to shoot for a top 10, I should have just sat in all day, but what is the fun in that? I always want to get a good result, but lost my nerve at the end, and didn't want to take the risk sprinting on the
narrow roads. ugh! what a frustrating race.