A few well kent faces returned from their sojourn in sunnier climes to test the legs in the bunch. Voigts got stuck down south as a result of the ash cloud and had to partake in some retail therapy to dull the pain from missing the ride! He did however manage to charter an airplane to get home and then skip into a helicopter so he could follow the bunch Tour de France style.
What immediately struck him was the silhouettes that the riders cut, with one notable exception they were all the same. The exception - Pozatto, a head that looked like it could support it's own lunar system, he had returned.
He could make out Lance at the back directing traffic, passing orders, policing the bunch and then deciding he had had enough, tailing off the back. Perhaps reflecting on the summer ahead. Or perhaps he has a lot on his mind with all the rumours that abound about him in the media and press speculation about getting beaten by a man with two chins. What we all know is that whatever they are saying, we know his fondness of pigmy goats is purely platonic and that he is looking to use the pelt as a covering for his saddle on his new bespoke fixie...
The bunch looks a large amoeba from above, flexing the boundaries of the group pushing forward, absorbing riders back in by phagocytosis when the gaps appear but secreting the weak to the rear, as if by some form of organic digestion. What the bunch did seem to do was offer some brief asylum from the elements with the brave and strong at the front offering support to the weaker. The collective force of like minded individuals being greater than that of the individual as is generally the case in life.
The strong, Hushovd, Pozatto, Voeckler and Fabio (Fabio Felline - Young Mark) were working at manipulating the boundaries of the bunch as it ground forward. The first test of the night on the West Ferry left carnage behind with Voeckler returning to the form that earned him the nickname of the baby faced assassin. Pozatto demonstrating that his sojourn had done no harm and that the miles in his legs were now paying dividends. Talking of financial payback Hushovd was there in the mix! The boy is getting strong and has a delivery plan now allowing him to deliver over the entire ride. His commute home was however a step too far.
Dropping below the cloud cover and pushing into the wind the helicopter struggled to stay with the pack on their alpine climb of the Clune, Lance finding his legs once again, Fabio looking eager on the climb as usual and Thor grinding it out at a cadence that makes Pic jealous. The switch backs testing the pilots skills to the max did nothing to prepare him for the deadly descent that was about to take place. The fall from the Knapps to Bridge of Weir saw the amoeba succumb to gravity and thus the symbiotic relationships of the fellow riders finally broke and by some form of miraculous conception or perhaps even by mitosis we had two bunches.
The climb from Bridge of Weir tests the strong. To attack there takes courage, delivers pain for the roulers but levels the playing field for the climbers in the peleton. Voeckler attacked! The amoebas rolled and the strongest bunch of Voeckler, Hushovd, Pozatto and Fabio tested the theory of evolution. Searching for the weak! The camera captured the run in as the amoeba flexed. Pain=gap! It's easy to see from above. You don't need to see the eyes, hear the laboured breathing or feel the pain. It's a mathematic formula from above pain=gap! Everyone was in pain as Voeckler gapped them and took the tape on the George.
The sprints, well there really is only one bridesmaid isn't there.... No not Kate, keep it clean! Thor, he took both.
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