Originally Posted by aaronmcd

Turlock Lake Roller Coaster - I mean road race.
E3/4, pack finish, maybe 20 or 30 out of 100

68 miles, 3 laps. Almost completely rollers (except for a few miles around the start/finish).

First lap rode a bit off the back, coasting downhill and partway up til I hit the pack, then pedal.
Second lap similar, but moved up near the end and started looking for break opportunities. Got in a break of 10-12 guys, thought for sure some other guys' teammates would be able to block. One guy in the break with a teammate also in the break attacked, people were riding here and there, hard work but not organized enough. Reeled in after a few miles.

Last lap, stayed near the front. One guy went up the road and everyone agreed he wasn't a threat. A Squadra guy later followed, and his teammate sat second wheel just to do nothing. Then another guy went up and 2 teams came to the front to block. A third team (OTF) came up to pull, but it wasn't working. I was waiting for an OTF guy to go up the road but I was shuffled back a bit before it happened. Moved up and saw OTF dude up the road with another guy on a 4th big team. Now 4 teams were at the front blocking. I casually mentioned this to a few guys but they seemed uninterested, so I moved up and attacked. Shut down by said 4 teams. I rested a minute and attacked again. Shut down again. Repeat a 3rd time and maybe a 4th, I don't remember. By now the break was so close I figured it wouldn't last (and it didn't - caught about a mile or 2 from the finish).

Rested p, then tried to hold a good position, but it's damn hard with lines of guys coming up the side and very difficult to force myself in somewhere to move up. Then 1k to go pace goes up to maybe 32-33. I'm trying to find wheels that aren't exploding which is difficult. A few hundred to go, we pass a crash from another field on the right. We are yelled at to slow down which causes nearly everyone to hesitate or tap brakes before resuming the finish. Combination positioning issues and finishline crash, I couldn't move up.

68 miles, average speed 25 mph even with 2500 ft of climbing!

Oh, and crashfest. Wind, echelon, guy 2 in front of me to the right swerves into guy's wheel in front of me. He manages to hold it up, and is bumped almost into my front wheel.
Later I heard there was a crash in the field while I was up the road in the break.
Then last lap I felt something hit my left leg kinda behind me and heard crashing bikes.
Someone mentioned there was also a 3rd crash somewhere.