He's Come Unhitched

Pescadero Road Race (skinny tires) Pescadero, CA
If I had a picture to show you, you know I would... but I was too busy racing to get anything worthy of sharing.
One thing I love about racing bikes...you never really know what's going to happen until it happens. Sometimes you are surprised by you abilities and other times, like yesterday, your inabilities. Yesterday's race went terribly. Training-wise, I was all set up to have a great race on a course that suits my riding capabilities. Lot's of climbing, some false flats, and some twisty descents. All of which I have dramatically improved on this year.
I knew first thing Saturday morning when the alarm rang at 4:00 am that I was not in the zone. As I got out of bed, my body just felt wrong...all up tight and sore. I had a tough workout on Wednesday morning, but I had ample time to recover from that.
When I started warming up before the race, I knew something was up. I was feeling fatigued at even low power-outputs. No need to alarm myself yet. I have had some of my best races feeling like this in the warm-up. I started to feel a bit better by the last ten minutes of the warm-up.
I have never ridden this course before so my plan was to just sit in the first of three laps and get a feel for the course. That is unless I see a formidable break happen...and of course, I did. I went with it.
Chris Barry from Team Spine and a guy named Jan (he claimed) went up the road. I have ridden with both guys enough to know that there was some serious horsepower between those guys. We were working well together. We had a good 30-40 second gap. I was hoping we could get at least two more guys to bridge up to us, specifically a couple of strong guys. To no avail. After ten minutes, we were not gaining any ground and the group was coming back up to us. Our break-a-way group was going to get swallowed up. Once we did, I was ready for another jump if the right guys went.
We rolled into the big climb as one big group and that's when it hit me. Attacks started happening and I could not cover them. I had NOTHING! I was kicking the dashboard, flicking the dials looking for anything, but NOTHING. "Scotty, take us to warp speed," but nothing.
My stomach was feeling a bit off in the morning, but on that climb, it turned inside out. I was afraid that I might, "ahem", purge myself, but I could not tell which direction it might go, up or down. My game plan went from trying to win this thing to just surviving it.
For the next two laps, I was suffering an internal dilemma like never before. Sick to my stomach and legs of Jell-O with shards of glass sums up my physical status, but you never know how it will turn out. I was still in the main group, and nobody was going up the road...I may be able to make this happen.
On the second time up the climb, I managed to get to the front at the beginning and drift backwards through the group so I didn't have to surge just to stay in contact. I was in the back of the group by the top, but in contact still. All I had to do was sit in for the last lap and gun it with all I had on the final climb.
Bad luck can strike on bad days too. Just as I neared the top of the climb with the last five guys still in contact, a car decided to try and pass us on the blind hill at the crest. He managed to nearly get into a head on with an oncoming car at the top and then stopped in our lane at the start-finish line as the race officials were yelling at him to get out of the way. Meanwhile, us five are yelling at him to get out of the way as the group sped off without us. Passing was not an option without risking life and limb as cars are coming at us head-on and there is no room on the right side because of the ditch. We were screwed. Finally the car sped off with us in tow behind him. We could descend far faster than the car, but this guy was NOT letting us around. A few guys made life threatening passes around a blind turn and nearly paid the ultimate price for it. This is just a race for training and nothing more...so I sat patiently and waited...and drafted behind him. Finally he pulled over, but I was so far behind at this point it was pointless.
Another guy caught up to me. I informed him that I was going as far as Pescadero and if we did not catch the group, I was pulling as my stomach was now a a quagmire. I set myself on the front and pulled. I was essentially in time trial mode. Head down and on the gas. We ended up catching the group of 5 guys a mile from Pescadero. I wanted to turn in so bad, but now I had to finish. I managed to sit in on the group and take an occasional pull. I had just buried myself for 30 minutes trying to catch them, so they understood why I was not pulling every rotation. Besides, we were out of the main group, so we were riding tempo, not racing, but anything could happen...
By the time we reached the bottom of the last climb, we had reeled in a few stragglers and moving pretty good. I made one last pull to the base of the climb and thanked them for the pull, I was checkin-out. I wanted to just ride tempo up the climb, they could race if they felt so inclined. Mentally I knew I would catch them without punching it at the bottom. They took off, gapped me pretty good as I settled into a 300 watt tempo (about all I could sustain today, far below what I am capable on a normal day). Just as I predicted, those guys faded and I caught them and passed them as I stayed at my steady tempo. I was passing others that had blown-up from the main group. We were closer than we thought.
With 1k to go my group jumped me again...sort-of. I decided to let them know who was boss here. I got out of the saddle passed them all, pulled away and then shut her down 30 meters from the finish because again there were cars in the way. Come to find out we were very near the main group at the finish as they kept surging and sitting up as they were posturing for the finish climb. I am glad I decided to stay with it instead of taking that oh-so inviting turn to the cars in Pescadero. I really suffered, but I also managed to fight through it an make good on it even if I was not in the mix. This will pay off later, I can assure you.
I guess the lesson here is even if you think you are having a bad day, it can get worse. You have to keep on trying with all of your might because no matter how fruitless it might seem, at least you are trying to improve yourself. It's either that or just surrender and become a victim of your own circumstance. I prefer to stay and fight.