fleche ardennaise...

didn't go quite the way I hoped.

The early going was uneventful as I conserved energy for the 10 climbs and 177k distance. 55ks in was the first climb and I managed to hook up with some teammates to fight into the first 50 or so riders at the bottom of the climb. Unfortunately, a crash happened right ahead of me on the tiny road and created a huge traffic jam. I didn't fall but ran into the pile of bikes, jumped off, and tried to fight my way through. Unfortunately it took an eternity to get through (maybe like 30-60 seconds) and the riders who made it through lit it up as soon as hey heard he crash. I immediately took off up the climb and flew past riders. Somehow I managed to catch the lead group at the top. But the descent was too short, and too crosswindy, and the next climb started only a couple ks later. I closed gaps jumping around dropped riders the entire climb until I cracked with 500 meters to go. I was frustrated and angry that my raging climbing form of late was ruined by chasing down such a big gap. I considered dropping out for a while until our directory, Crist, told me to keep riding in the group I was in. There were only maybe 50 riders up the road and we were sure to chase through some stragglers. Unfortunately, 110k into the race, with a group of 10-15 only seconds ahead of us, we were outside some stupid time check and got pulled. The group only seconds ahead went through, then the police stepped into the road and told our group we were done. I was frustrated. Only 44 riders of 200 starters ended up classified, and if the group ahead of us were the last finishers (I think they were, since they were 13 minutes down) then we could have caught that group and I would have been somewhere in the top 40. That's a lot of speculation, but regardless it sucks to get pulled. Luckily, when we were pulled I was only 1k from where the team van was set up to feed us. I road there, joined teammates who had crashed out, and drove straight back to Izegem.