85F, 82 miles supposedly (really 77 miles including several miles neutral rollout).
The first half was pretty much straight downhill into a headwind. Then, in the tiny town of Richland, we went around both city blocks and headed back the way we came.
Not exactly a scenery rich stage.
It was, however, windy. Tail turing to cross winds on the exposed sections. One five mile climb didnt destroy the field, tho it was reduced to about 30. I managed to sit mostly sheltered from the raging cross winds, and so my hardest 10 minutes on that hill averaged about 280W. Anyone caught in the wind was probably doing half again as much. I had a few short jumps to move up or get better shelter, thats about it. Mellow day. Hot. Tiring, but not stressful. I finished with the pack.
Stage highlights include:
- spotting a nice buck alongside the course duing the 40 mile coast to Richland
- people litterally stopping in the feedzone, dropping bottles everywhere
- some dude flipping his bike, in the feedzone, at about 15mph (i think he hit a bottle)
- poor fred meyer kid a rock half the size of my head, right in the middle of the field, endo'ed into broken shale and rock of the shoulder (hes ok and so is his bike)
other than that, really a pretty tame day.
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