Just cat 5's is what I thought as well, I was wrong. There are a lot of what I consider to be fast riders in cat 5. I had no idea until I started.

As for "just soloing the thing" that wasn't an option. You would have had to have been there I guess. Everytime someone tried something one of the two teams would start a chase and the whole group would go after them. Someone would have had to be very strong in order to get away. PolishPostal attempted going off of the front once. They let him go about five seconds before I heard someone send two riders to the front to chase him down.

The idea of just going solo sounded much better before I did either race. I now have a much higher respect for road racers.