Those other riders should be ashamed of themselves for crushing your soul like that. Heck, they might have hurt your feelings and/or damaged your sense of self-esteem. Boys can be so cruel sometimes.
Greg Lemond has always said if they cleaned up the sport you'd see a lot more drama, and would see immortals start getting shelled out the back.
PS: I mistook you for Hermes or I wouldn't have snarked like that. However, I hate to erase perfectly good irony so I'll leave the remark. But it was directed at Hermes. Humility would be good for his soul.
Sorry you got crushed. It was probably the weather, that and the possiblity that everyone else was doping.