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Rode the Kemmelberg with Juan the other day... super cool ride, I was kind of hammered though. We had a race in the Ardennes the day before and there was something like 15 climbs in this race... and when I say climbs, I don't mean 500-800 meters really steep... I mean 1k (at the very least) to 8k, varying from probably 8%-20%... I would say the average for the climbs was around 2.5k in length and averaging 12% for the whole race... I made it through the first selection which saw about half the field get shelled (that 8k more gradual climb... but we were on the gas the whole time)... When the real stuff started, I rolled off the back about 1k from the top but was able to get back on just before the next climb. It seemed like as long as you can get over the climb before the caravan, you were fine... You just had to jam on the descent and take a few small risks to get back on... I ended up getting in a small group and these guys were grabbing the cars and slinging themselves forward as we were riding through the caravan... kinda crazy! But I found out why... I pulled those guys till we got in a good spot in the caravan that was close enough to the group that we weren't getting the yoyo effect and passing 3 cars when they slowed then getting passed by 2 when they sped up... That can make for a long time in the caravan and you don't want to be there at the base of a climb that you know you're gonna struggle on. I spent a bit too much energy chasing back on and about 1.5k up the following climb I found myself at the back struggling to hold the wheel again... I was screwed anyways, at the front the race was blowing to peices and I could see gaps forming making 5 or 6 groups of 10 guys and I was gonna be in the last group... I didn't even hold on to that, I couldn't climb to save my life... Gotta lean up a little bit more for those kind of races... I think they are going to put me in flatter races now... I didn't make the selection for Fleche Ardennes this weekend (Thank God!), Els showed me the profile for it today and if I thought Tuesday was rough that race would put me in cardiac arrest... The profile looks like my power files for crits... Nuts!