This was an extremely hard race. One of the hardest I've done in the last two years. The course didn't have a flat spot of pavement anywhere on it. There were two substantial hills, both which started out very steeply. To make matters worse, the pace never let up. There were massive accelerations at the bottom of all of the steeper climbs and the pace stayed high over the top.
The race basically came down to attrition. After only 4 laps (28 miles), the original 40 riders were broken into little groups of 3 and 4 spread all over the map. With great determination, Woody managed to stay in the 1st chase group while Joe Niccum and I could only manage to hold the 2nd chase group. Woody jumped off the front of his group near the end for 5th place. Joe and I got 10th and 12th respectively.
