from tough to tougher..er

from the start of the day (on thursday) i haven't felt well at all. the food isn't something that i'm accustomed to eating.. especially pre-race. we had another presentation before the start and then a 10k neutral roll-out to the "official" start. during the roll-out, actually the entire race, my stomach was killing me. all i could hope was that it eventually would settle and i could contribute to the team plan. didn't happen. i was on the rivet the E N T I R E day. always in the gutter.. suffering. the wind blowing at 15 - 20mph, my wheel constantly against the curb, and my tongue dragging the ground. 60k before the finish surge flatted and i decided to wait. a slow wheel change and 1 minute later, surgio was riding up to my rear wheel at near exhaustion. at the back of the race caravan now, we had to ride through all the cars and try to make it back to the field. a few minutes later, hanging on by our toes, we make it and try to sit in to recover. still tail gunning it (tail gunning is a term for literally being the last guy in the group), i occasionally look up to see all my teammates up there killing it. 40k from the finish, the race begins to blow apart and my teammates pay for their super human efforts. lex and victor are able to hang on to the dwindling field and finish in the second group. the word on the street was that victor stayed on the front during the closing km's trying to keep lex out of trouble. a small group got away but victor and lex were able to finish in the field. the rest of the vergesport team limped in about 8 mins later in the laughing group of 20. not a very good day us but we're staying optimistic for the upcoming stages. tomorrow we're transferring to hong kong for a 80k american style criterium... can't wait! nick