Hell of the north 2011

Another road biking season started out in a painful way. Last year I was lucky to finish this race, getting dropped from the lead group on the 2nd of 10 laps and flatting somewhere along the way, coming in close to last place. This year the course was as fast as I have seen it with a good tailwind coming out of the south making the gravel section dangerously fast. When you hit a pothole at 35 mph, it can be painful and very hard on a bike.
I was able to make the selection on the first and second laps when our group that started with 30 but got reduced down to 10. I was feeling as good as I could with my heart rate never seeing south of 170 bpm for the first hour and 20 minutes. After we had whittled it down to 6 guys my legs gave. I got popped somewhere around the 7th lap (i lost count of the laps
In there somewhere) and limped to the finish, getting caught by one guy that was riding very strong and just unfortunately went down in the first corner of the race and had to fight his way back, and then by a group of 2 guys from my race that had attached on to the back of a cat 1/2 break and sat on.
The pirate did well finishing in a respectable 13th with only One leg. I wasnt there when he crossed the line but i wonder if he pointed to his stump for everybody that came in after him.

photo courtesy of cyclingutah.com