so yea...

Here's how Omloop went for me... In the first 30k we had a cobbled climb that was about 1k long... It was important to be in the top 30 guys at the base of that, so for the first 30k everybody was battling to be at the front. I started at the front but couldn't seem to stay there, I would try to move up every chance I had which meant riding in the wind a lot. Since most of the road is taken up by the riders, you have to use the bike paths as much as you can when they're there... which gets a bit dicey at times with islands dividing the road and the bike path, leaving you weaving between the gaps in the islands or trying to bunny hop them. Doesn't sound too hard yet, but when you are going over 30mph and then you put flower pots in the middle of the islands and caution poles at the begginning and end of each island it gets a little tricky... Those holes between the islands go by pretty quick when you are racing past them at 35mph, and even quicker when half of that hole is occupied by construction equipment which was the case yesterday. I found myself having to push my luck many times in those situations just to try to stay at the front, so much so that I even knicked a dumpster with my elbow... I figured I was good as we turned on to the small farm roads that took us up to the climb. When we hit those small roads, the field stretched out and I could see I was more like top 60 than top 30. There was nothing I coud do at that point but just try to stay in contact on the climb when things would start to break apart. I paced myself up the climb and tried not to panick, I wasn't sinking back which made it easier not to panick. A few guys rode hard past me, but they got spit out the back shortly after we crested over the top. When the climbs split things up like that, you can expect to go super hard after cresting over the top. The guys at the front go hard up the climb to break things up, then keep going over the top to keep people from getting back on. When we hit the top, I was still in contact with the field. When it kept going hard though, the guy in front of me let the wheel go in front of him. We were on a striaight road, so it took a second for me to see around him. When I finally could see ahead of him, I could see that the gap was growing pretty quick. I went around the guy and tried to close the gap, but all I could do was limit the damage. I figured maybe I would be okay as I probably have the rest of the field with me... Nope, all that was left was about 8 guys in my group and everyone else got shelled. The main group was riding away and I thought my day was done. I tried a few more efforts on the front and led us into the next climb, where I hung on to the top. After cresting over the top we hit a section of road that was pretty straight with rolling hills. We were able to see the peleton and caravan again, giving us a rabbit to chase. We finally got back into the caravan, but our group was big enough that the officials made the cars in front of us stop so we couldn't do any drafting. Luckily we were in a section with alot of corners and we were able out corenr the lead group enough to tag on the back. After about 45 minutes of chasing we finally got back on. We tagged back on at the base of another climb, I moved about halfway up the field with my momentum from chasing, that still wasn't enough to avaoid getting caught behind another gap at the top of the climb though. Luckily we had a good technical descent after though. so I got down in a tuck and laid off the brakes in the corners. The last corner was a blind corner, but to close the rest of the gap I had to take the risk of not touching the brakes if I wanted to get back on... Luckily it worked out for me and I tagged back on again. A little while after that we had the Mur which is about 1k at 20-24%, it was tough but I never went out of my comfort zone. I was feeling pretty good and moving back up towards the front a little easier now that everyone else was a little more tired. Then one of my teamates broke a spoke... He was one of our stronger guys and had a good chance at a result. I was the closest rider, so I asked him what he needed... I ended up taking him up to the front then pulling over and giving him my wheel while I waited for another wheel. That was the end of my day, I rode in the caravan for a bit but the legs were hammered from basically spending most of the day riding like I was in a break away but off the back. I think that was tough mentally too, when you know you are riding as hard as the guys off the front but you're off the back... I kind of cracked mentally after the wheel change and packed it in. I regret that now because I heard the two guys I was with got back in the peleton... bummer... That won't happen again though... well, I have to go do a long ride today since I didn't get as many miles as I wanted yesterday... Ciao!