The final stage of the Club La Santa 4 day race is the big one - a Marathon 95 km of Lanzarote's finest climbs and singletrack. Over to Chris for his final race report before he heads for the pool... and maybe a crafty trip to the hotel bar.
With the distance upping from last years 80km to 95km it had me worried! I know I can go long, but long and last!?
The start had changed to a rolling start, so the group stayed very bunched for the first few km, I stayed just off the lead group until a tunnel pass regrouped everyone. I knew better than to chase the front group but Ant White got away with 2 up in front, queue another long chase with a spanish guy! Luckily I got back on.
There were some great sections of singletrack, which I rode ok... for me. We were caught and passed by the overall leader and Jason Bouttell, who was recovering from a buckled wheel.
I knew as we rode one section of singletrack that the 8km hill section was approaching, luckily we got towed all the way to the base by another recovering lead rider. The climb seemed to drag longer than last year and I should have made more efforts to hold the lead rider, but I stuck it out with Ant, strong as ever!
Climb done a few balls out descents brought us back down to the sand traps, 30km, 4 riders.
We stayed as a group until around 2km to go, then I decided to sprint for home.....which lasted all of about 400 meters, until I didn't quite have the legs to finish the job, but it did drop one rider.
In the end I got dropped by Ant and spanish in the last 300 meters. 96km, 4hrs 8mins, 22nd overall for the stage. 27 mins behind the original leader and race winner, who had passed me after a mechanical, chapeau that man!
24th overall GC
You can view the full results here - Results