I'm going to skip over the first stages and get to the interesting stuff for the sake of me not boring you/me not going on a tirade over what constitutes a "real mechanical." Suffice it to say that the first couple days hadn't gone as well as planned, and left me with a good deal of rage to get me through Stage 4. The team hadn't done as well as we'd have liked, so we decided to take a chance today and hopefully do something big. On the 102 mile, 7,000+ vertical last stage, there was ample opportunity for big. The plan was to get in the early move with at least two of us. I decided that the end of the neutral rollout was sufficiently early, and rolled away. I was off for about 10 seconds before I glanced back and saw blue and white coming across to me. It was Ben and an Audi rider. Excelllent...
We were rolling now. It was a 6 man break with a big task ahead of us. We had to hold off the field for the next 85 miles, then climb Dooley. This would definitely qualify as big if we pulled it off. After about 15 miles, the Audi guy looked over at us and said something about feeling terrible, and drifted off. The break was down to 5 hardmen. So we rolled for another 15 when I heard a "psssssssss." One of the other guys had flatted. 4 hardmen. We kept going, and were doing quite well for a long time. We got the gap up to about 6:20 at one point. I found out after the race that the peloton was told 10:00 and they started working harder. Thanks again officials! Anyways... we made it over the first three climbs with a three minute gap. This was where things got a little tricky. Ben was our GC hope, so I didn't want him driving the break. Would the three of us be strong enough to keep the gap up without him? What if the Non-Bob noticed Ben sitting on and decided to sit on as well? Then it would just be Steve and me and he was looking strong so he could win if he didn't work. What if Ben cracks on the climb? Steve and I weren't in any condition to fight on the climb, so I determined the last question was irrelevant. I decided that if the other guy was pulling, Ben could choose to pull if he wanted. I started pulling as hard as I could on the pre-Dooley flats. The Non-Bob would tell me to slow up as I was gapping my teammates. Ben told me at that point that he wasn't feeling good. Not excellent. I sent him to the back of the break and told him not to pull through again. At about mile 85, the Non-Bob threw my reading of him all out of whack when he said to me "I'm going to back off a bit." 3 Bob's hardmen. Steve and I drove it to the bottom of Dooley and sent Ben off the front with some cheers and a 3 and a half minute gap. I was confident that Ben would fight his brains out and hold off the field. My personal victory would be to stay upright on the climb. I had done my duty and just wanted to get done with the stage. I wasn't riding very fast, but Elliot from team Look! Save A Life went by me like he was riding a motorcycle. That dude is a freak. He started racing this year and has dominated every big stage race he's been in. I looked over at him and managed to mumble "dammit Elliot" at him. He responded with a cheery "Come on Brian, let's go!" He was going to catch Steve and Ben and our break was going to be in vein. Ben really needed to fight and stay on Elliot's wheel. I kept pushing up the hill. Several riders passed me and congratulated the team for riding a great race and putting everybody up against the ropes for 90 miles. Eventually, I found a girl that was riding at the right pace for me and went the rest of the way up with her. I crossed the line and immediately asked what happened ahead of me. Ben's dad gave the news that Ben had been caught by 13 riders. Disappointing, but we had taken a risk and it nearly worked to perfection. I feel like having an entire team coming to the base of the hill alone might be a first in Elkhorn history. We did everything we could to win the race and some days it's not in the cards, but we still had to give it our best.
P.S. The fields at Elkhorn were way smaller than last year. It was just as cool of a race as last year, and will be just as cool again next year, so everybody should do it.
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