The initial breakaway for the hilly 60 mile race started at just mile 7. We had maybe 6-8 guys with us. Some bridged up, some dropped. There were a few attacks up the hill to shed the fat, and that turned out to be the right thing to do, because they were slowing us down. At mile 30, I could feel my right leg starting to cramp, probably because I worked hard in the first few laps trying to increase our gap on the descents. As a result, I was careful about burning my matches, and spinned my legs out as much as possible.
After a couple of attacks in the break, four of us remained, a junior, Strike Cycling, and Daswow. The Daswow guy (Tyler) initiated the attacks out of the breakaway, and was the one I had my eye on. He was wily, and started skipping pulls. It was hard to tell if he was actually tired, or saving for final lap. Eventually, he dropped his chain, and off the back he went. It was better for the breakaway, because his contribution to the group at that point was minimal.
Three of us remained. We eventually had a 1:30 gap on the field. I actually dropped my chain twice, but was lucky in that I was able to save both while on the bike, and chase back on quickly. Eventually, our pace settled, and I began to plot my move. With a cramping leg, initiating attacks up the hill, followed by prolonged intense effort to the finish was out of the question. I could only follow the attacks, and hope I don't cramp. The junior had a highest gearing of 53/14, meaning he'll spin out on the down hills. Strick Cycling (Patrick) isn't the best at descents or corners. So my plan was to attack on the steepest descent ~1600m before the finish, in order to create my separation for the win.
The rest is in the video