classique dole-lons-le-saunier

this race was a category one race and very very hard alot of the top teams were there, there was even the ag2r lamondiale u23 squad racing. it started with a short 4km time trial around the city the course was very tight wiht lots of sharp corners which meant alot of accelerations, the weather was awful it was very cold and pouring with rain so i decided to ride my road bike instead of the tt bike. this kind of time trial does not suit me so i wasnt expecting to do so well, i ended up coming in 45th out of 120 so pretty average. The race was 90km longand it was still very cold and wet, the cold made it very hard to race in as it really hurt ur lugs to breathe. The first 40km was flat and was on very open roads so there were very big cross winds i knew i had to be at the front because there would defianately be a split. ag2r were all at the front driving it and at about 25km i looked behind me and i was in a group of about 25 and the main peleton was 30 seconds back, but instead of everyone in the break working together they kept attaking the hole time this was nothing like in new zealand. the first hill came at 40km and i knew i did not have good legs by this point but i managed to stay with the break for 4 km of the climb but by then the attacks were to much for me and i started slipping back, the next group caught me at the top of the hill so i just sat in, but by 65km my legs were cooked so i sat up and rolled to the finish. i think not having ridden for such a long time didnt help as i didnt ride for a week before i left for france and neither did the big nights i had before i left or the plane flight. So after a few big rides this week i should start to come right.
sam