Stage 6 - The last "hard" stage

Last night's race briefing told us we had one more long and tough day. I was looking forward to the finish right at the ocean town of Hermanus. I got to staging early this time for a front position right behind the G section. Unfortunately my position resembled something like Bay to Breakers as it took over three minutes to cross the start line. I time trialed for the second day to bridge up to my former start group. I was a little more careful today not to blow myself early like the day before. Its so hard to recall the details of each days race as there is so much terrain, climbing, and suffering. Today's long climb i do remember. The combo of steeps and sand (walking). The descent was fast and rocky and by the end my fingers and forearms were killing of from braking and avoiding hazards. I was lucky enough to hook up with two German teams who pulled and paced me through the next 20k until one of them got shelled and had to slow. I was off solo until 20k to go when I found myself with a group of eight riders. We entered into a really nasty section of washboards and sand where the clean lines were never very clear. One guy from a Dutch team lead and had us zig zagging all over the place at a frantic pace that had us all on the rivet. Riders were getting squirrelly but no one wanted to lose the group. As soon as we made a turn we hit more patches of sand that took out a few riders including the Dutch guys. The road pitched up and more were done. I was fortunate to make it thru and carry my momentum up the hill where a whole mess of riders were feeling the pain of the last 10k. For some reason this gave me energy. I rode aggressively through a lumpy section of the sand dune. The next 3k would be on the beach where there was a stretch that was completely unrideable. I took a look back and to my surprise didn't see anyone else yet make the beach. To be sure I kept pushing hard once I hit the tarmac. Five k more to go and i went into TT mode and soloed in to a beautiful finish overlooking the water with a nice crowd cheering me in. It felt good today to ride so strong at the end. There really is no prize for the solo rider but its good practice and fun. For the record the had me as 14th individual on the day although i only recall one person passing me. Jim and JD keep making time on the nearest Masters competitors in their bid for a top ten. They edged out Rich and Doug at the line.