And the rest of the team.  Five of them dropped back with him (I believe; I didn't see it) and paced him.  Sounds easy.  But Sagan was in so much pain he could not climb fast so they had no choice but slow the uphills to his pace.  They knew from the beginning they had to finish within 40 minutes and had already used most of that before Toumalet (sp).  So they paced him as best they could to the summits, then let him go on the descents.  (He may be damaged goods but still, he is one of the world's best descenders and his escort would only slow him down.)  At the bottom, they TTT'd back up to him and pulled him to the next climb and repeat.

Their DS described them as all being on the limit.  And they finished nearly 2 minutes inside that 40 minutes despite hearing the time limit had been extended another 6.  Classy.  And yet another of the races inside the race  Reminds me of the great footage of a few riders desperately trying to bring the grupetto in under the time cut.  They'll remember that ride better than many of their victories.

I was about to post and remembered one of my hardest ever hill climbs doing a similar act.  It was my regular weekday off ride to and up Mt Wachusett.  120 miles.  But this week, I was taking Friday morning off to do this, not all day Thursday.  (Had to rebuild the wheel that got hit by a car so I took Thursday afternoon off to build it.)  Usually Kate, my riding partner would join me as I rode close to her house at 20 miles out.  Didn't see her on the road so went to her house.  She woke up, grabbed a bite and went.  (She raced the night before.)  We made it to the mountain in good shape but coming home were two tough hills and she absolutely didn't have it.

This left me with a dilemma.  Leave her 40 miles from her home and get to work on time, dog it, stay with her and show up perhaps good and late ... or ... push her up the hills.  I did.  And my G** was that hard!  Climbing seated, left hand at the stem, right on her butt, 42-19.  The saving grace was that she was a very good rider.  She got that she was steering for both of us so all I had to do was pedal insanely hard.

Only once, in a race, have I done a climb that was harder.

Ben