As timmy clearly is waaay to lazy to do this, I'll give it another shot
Disclaimer: it's rather boring, I was lacking inspiration and had to leave for class
Another one day race! This time we start of in the pitoresque village of The Face, go over the grave hills of Christopher Hitchens and Vaclav Havel (RIP) and we finish in the city of Beer and Coffee!
As the finish is in the hometown of Scott SoCal, he'll be likely to show what he's got - if he stays sober that is! Krebs and Maxiton too are expected to do something with their knowledge of the local area. These caffeinelovers should watch out though, because they might lose some of their strenths after the coffee's gone!
Also one who will want to show himself is TheHitch, named after his hero, the late Chris Hitchens. Will he Hitchslap the peloton like Chris used to do with creationists?
Some of the favourites: Zamo and Parrulo have been showing some climbing prowess the last couple of races so they should feature. The return of Boomcie to racing is also highly anticipated! He'll have his trusted domestique (le me
) as support.
Oldborn was expected to show great things but a 2nd whereaboutsstrike made him miss the race!
Outsiders: Thirteen, Craig1985, Quixote, Michele, Eric8-A.
At the starting line: In memory of the ones we've lost during 2011 a minute of silence is held. Some riders are wearing a black strap around their arm as a token of respect.
And they're off! As a good descender, Craig takes the initiative and the peloton immediately stretches out. He soon gets a gap but decides to calm down a bit as he hit a small bump in the road that made him hop up a bit.
At the bottom of the descent, Gingerviking and nobilis attack, probably to get some breathing room before they hit Mount Vaclav! Maxiton and Quixote would like to take the Cima Coppi and counter the 2 leaders. After 5 kms of chasing they join them and the duo becomes a quattro.
The peloton is chasing hard and the leaders can't seem to get more than a 30 second gap. When a sudden crash disturbs the chase!
As expected Scott caused the fall by completely messing up his sense of balance due to his new discovery of Back Abbeybeer. We see Krebs stop! Is he going to help his crashed buddy out? No! He's actually stealing Scott's bidon's! These are clearly filled with yet some more beer! Krebs is clearly making himself comfortable with his booze.
Back to the race, the leading 4 now have 2.30 minutes as the road starts winding upwards. Attack from the peloton! Unsurprisingly it's the World Champ, Thirteen really can't control herself. She is followed by both Eric8-A and Thomas the Tank
In the front group Maxiton is leading the group as the RedheadNord is getting in difficulty. The peloton is being led by both the Belgians as the Antipodes! VeeDeeBee and Craig are controlling the pace for their respective leaders, Boomcie and ACF. ACF is apparantly finally getting the support he's been begging for all these months. Thirteen has dropped TheTank as Eric is hanging on for dear life! She can already smell the sweaty drops of fear of Gingerviking as she's raging towards her.
5 km's from the top this is the situation: Thirteen, Maxiton and Quixote +30s Eric8-A and nobilis +2min gingerviking, TankEngine +2.15 Peloton +16 mins Libertine
Libertine's new aero kit clearly not having the effect he wished for as the organisers decide to take him out of the race! The peloton in the meanwhile has caught up with the Dane and the TankEngine and they soon get dropped. But they're not the only ones! The Belgian road captain Arriviste is getting in difficulty, the same goes for Ryo Hazuki(clearly honourin the tradition of a true colombian in Europe!), Havetts and Mewmew.
Only 1 km from the top as nobilis joins the leading trio. There goes Thirteen! She's clearly feeling good, but nobilis counters easily and sits on her wheel to pass her in the final 100 meters to take the VaclavMemorialprize.
Situation at the top: Thirteen, nobilis +10s Maxiton, Quixote +20s Eric8-A. Peloton following at 2.30m.
After beating the ferocious Mount Vaclav, the forumites are glad to give their legs some rest during the rather easy descent. Maxiton, Quixote join Thirteen and nobilis and not much later Eric also reaches the leaders. Dlwssonic is seen talking to ACF in the peloton, and not that much later he goes to front to raise the speed. ACF clearly doesn't want the break to get too much time. Very easy and boring descent indeed because nothing happened here(lack of inspiration much?)
What follows now is 20 km in the valley, with a nice wind in the back. The break is really pulling open the gas now as their lead expands to 3.30 mins. At the back of the peloton we can see some domestiques getting water bottles for their leaders. Parrulo, clearly lacking team support, has to fetch his own water. He's seen arguing to VeeDeeBee about cobbles again, while he's handing out bottles to Boomcie and El Pisti.
The bottom of mountain of Hitch: leading 5 +3.40mins peloton.
AussieGoddess is clearly ****ed about the lack of chasing(Dlwssonic clearly lacking strenght for a long chase on the flat) and the slow pace, she attacks and is countered by Hitch! We haven't seen anything of these two today. They clearly have been saving themselves. Craig, VeeDeeBee and Parrulo see the danger these 2 pose to their leaders or themselves and they immediatly go to the front to shred the peloton!
At the front thirteen is seen attacking once again, only nobilis follows, the others clearly struggling to keep moving. Hitch has also dropped AussieGoddess. She clearly overestimated herself as she's giving up now.
Situation at the first top: Thirteen, Nobilis +2mins Hitch +2.30Peloton with Boomcie, Parrulo, ACF etc.. +2.50 mins Quixote, Maxiton, Eric8-A(clearly they bonked)
What's that? Thirteen has to let nobilis go! Has she overestimated her own force? VeeDeeBee also giving up now as he finished his last big turn at the front. The gap has slimmed down to 1.30 mins with Nobilis, 1 min to Thirteen and 45 secs to Hitch who is really flying now!
Only 7 more kms to the top as Hitch really gets going! He clearly wants to honour his hero by getting to the top first, he goes on and over nobilis as Thirteen is swallowed and dropped by the chasers. The first one to drop there is ACF, clearly all that support didn't do him any good as the aussies must rely on craig now (even though he's been working all day). 3 more kms to Cima Hitchens!
There still is a 45 second gap between TheHitch and the chasing group. Attack! Parrulo goes, followed by boomcie and Zamo! Craig clearly lacks power and El Pisti has to let go as well. They catch up to nobilis. He's trying to follow but get's thrown of his bike by a jealous Libertine(he also wants to be able to get over a speed bump and e took a helicopter up the mountain to cause some distress)
The top! Hitch takes the Cima Hitchens, but will he also take the stage? Parrulo has closed to gap to a mere 10 seconds, whilst Zamo and Boomcie round the top another 5 seconds later.
The final descent to the finish! Parrulo taking great risks to get to Hitch, who is clearly having the day of his life. Boomcie and Zamo are staying cautious as they aren't the greatest descenders. Crash! Parrulo fell in a corner he took way to fast! Luckily he isn't hurt to bad and climbs on his bike again.
Thanks to this, Boomcie and Zamo are now in 2nd an 3rd place but can they catch up to Hitch? Only 5 kms left and they still have to make up 20 seconds!
Parrulo now out of contention because he ****ed himself and is really scared!
Final bend! Hitch comes out of it first, followed closely by Zamo who's dropped Boomcie!
Can he catch him? Noo! Finish: Hitch pointing to the sky as a final tribute to his hero!
1. Hitch
2. Zamo
3. Boomcie (impressive return by the young Belgian)
4. Parrulo
5. Pisti
6. Craig
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