Firstly, this is not intended as a copy of Mre's The Comeback. I had been toying with a shorter, less racing focused style of story for a while. Pretty obvious i don't focus on the racing. He proved it can be done. So i've moved forward and am going to use a similar style, in the sense that the parts are short. If it's too much like Mre's story, please let me know, and i can switch to a different style. I don't want people to mark this off as a cheap imitation, it's not!
It wasn’t just me, but the whole team. Results were not just consistent but good as well now. The tough start to the season had faded away, and Lincoln firmly re-established us as a top level squad. This was our first trip to Germany, and it was billed as a warm-up race. It was a good team and we were looking to win.
The race began in sunshine, which lasted all day long. The rolling course was not that hard, and the breakaway was always in reach. With about 50km to go they were eased back in. Frankly the whole attitude of the peloton was relaxed, expecting the sprint finish.
The Hobbit wrote:
Can we post?
If so, looks good, are you permanently doing 2-3 stories at one time? You must be an idea machine! Good luck.
yeah postings cool. 2 at once, Twenty Four and this. Roule, as i said, on extended break due to 3D issues. Twenty Four is really quick and easy, in fact he entire thing is written and im dragging out the updates a bit. This one i've pre-written all of Act 1 and some of Act 2. The rest of the story is planned out in quite a lot of detail. So two stories, which actually require fairly little time to do.
Looks interesting. I find the stories with "some story" to them quite interesting I like the idea, and personally I dont think its too similar to Mre's.
All thats basically the same is that the segments are short. Thats hardly stealing imo. People take each others layouts/formats, editing and reporting styles all the time and unless its blatant its never really brought up.
We picked out probably the last real climb on the route. Only a couple of kilometres long, and not steep, perhaps pushing 5% average. But it was enough if ridden hard. And I rode it hard! The gap eased away up the climb, and multiplied as I attacked the descent.
Back on the flat I had about 1’30 lead and 35km or so to rider alone. Still the peloton wasn’t panicking. The lead wasn’t huge, and I was just one rider. Shame for them that I was the one rider. If we didn’t hole the big sprint favourite things might have been different, but the chase only ever half came.
No-one wanted to deliver Rowe to the line to win, so tried to make us work. I just pounded down the road. I wasn’t trying to pull away just hold that gap to the line. Cutting 30km down, I did just that. Nailing the solo win but 1’15 on the line.
Good luck! I'll follow this (not following Roulle Britannia and 24, just too complicated for story). Followed past few seasons by Karl , so this seems great.
Luke brought himself across in 4th place, making a good day for the team. The warm up was certainly good. It was my third pro win, and I was going to enjoy it. Couple of kisses from the podium girls started things off nicely. Then the plan was to go out into the town, hit some clubs and just have a good time.
Turned out to be Student night in the local places, so everywhere was packed out. I mean none of us spoke German so that was…. Interesting. On the flip side, they all speak English. I’ll be honest, details are sketchy. A lot of very cheap booze was consumed. Dancing, booze, dancing, booze, booze, boobs then some more booze.
@Ian - Never thought of Andy, but this might answer that thought...
Act 1: The Breakup Scene 4:
The next thing I knew and it was Friday, race day. My first though was “Why is there construction work so close?!”… Embarrassing realisation struck when my hotel door fell open. My DS was standing in the frame holding a drill. I was in the shit. A one night celebration had turned into a two day haze of really cheap alcohol… and women apparently. The girl in my bed I guess proved that one true.
That was the worst startline I’d ever been at. The rest of the team just avoided me. Luke was the centre of attention that day being our lead sprinter, and the other guys were with him talking over the plans for the stage. I was shunned… alone… I had really fucked up. But I knew how I could turn this around.
@Sutty - There was only ever one choice for photo Short one this, but the next few are quite a lot bigger, so it balances out
Act 1: The Breakup Scene 5:
Stage 1 was penance day. For 80% of the day I was just ferrying water backwards and forwards. The extra effort of 9-10kg’s of water certainly cleared up the hangover. Towards the end I happily joined in the serious chase of the breakaway. I finished it off by putting in a couple of km drive to position Luke for the finish. He topped it off with a good 8th place. I hadn’t shaken off my mistakes, but the team was no longer ignoring me. It was a process I would work on for Stage 2.
@Jesl - It's gonna be a process
@sutty - Slowly. Keep putting in the effort and things will turn around
Act 1: The Breakup Scene 6:
Stage 2 I decided would be the day I made them accept me back. The final 20km included a couple of shortish climbs. 500/600meter stretches at over 10%, kind of like you would find in Belgium or Surrey. It would probably be too much for Luke to get over them and then sprint fully, so we decided to position Michal for the finish.
Again skipping over the boring parts of the race and jumping into the back end. The first short climb was tackled hard. You could see it putting a lot of riders into the red zone. I made sure that Michal was tucked on my wheel the whole way up, and over the top we both felt good. Luke was further down, but still in contention. The second climb was the same, but Luke dropped further back.
The third of the four climbs created the splits. Over the top Michal and I were in a small lead group of about 20 guys. There was no hesitating as I hit the front for the subsequent descent. Several other guys took the message and jumped up to help drive one. In such a flat race a split like this could guarantee a good GC spot. There was a lot of confusion with some sprinters missing out, but with riders in the lead group. Over the final wall the gap was only about 1’00 but it was enough. Another short decent and it was a straight blast into town for 5km.
Michal finished 3rd and on the podium. Tomorrows ITT would surely put him into the GC lead. And I had good feelings as well, eyeing up a good GC as well. Yes I’m not the best time trialist, but I can certainly give it a go.
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
I like the idea, and personally I dont think its too similar to Mre's. 
