Just the day after the Time Trial is the road race. Last year we had a rest day in between but not so this year. This put people who did the time trial at a disadvantage because racers only doing the road race were fresh. Knowing the course and reading about how the Elite races played out a week earlier, I decided that no breaks would get away and it would probably come down to the last climb. So my strategy was to conserve as much energy until the last climb.

The pace was pretty high at times but with a big pack of about 75 riders, it was easy to find a draft. Coming into the climb up to Park City, a rainstorm started. I actually made it over the top of the first hill with the lead group but wasn’t diligent about getting to the front on the next, longer hill. So I started the climb about mid-pack and was slowly slipping backwards through the field. I thought I would be able to stay in contact but that hill was longer than I remembered and it took forever for it to level off at the top. I just couldn’t go any faster and I was fantasizing about hitching a tow rope to any of the riders passing me just to get me to the top. The field was pretty strung out so I rationalized that there must have been some attacking at the front. I was off the back of the main group, but there were some other stragglers behind me.

I got with a group of about six riders and we tried to catch but by the time we went under the underpass, it was a lost cause. At that point, we were just working to finish this awful race and end the suffering. Oh well. By the steep pitch going by the town of Park City, my legs were done and I just TT’d into the finish. I got a disappointing 49th.