The tour of the Gila. Stage 4-5

The crit was... a crit. I attacked hard for a $200 prime but could not bridge to the solo leader at the time. Other wise it was a safe, steady, uneventful hour.
In the middle of the night before the last stage I awoke with some congestion. Not what your looking for hours before a 102 mile road race with 9000 feet of climbing. I grabbed me emergency Nyquil and went back to bed trying to not think about it. In the beginning of the race I felt good. Heck I felt great! However when the pressure was on I was instantly suffering.
A friend would later point out that I had most likely been riding with it the whole week. “Remember you said your throat felt wired on the drive down, you went and got Listerine…” “ohh yeah.” I said. Some times its hard to see the forest through the trees. This would explain my poor TT and lack of top end.
But onward, I realized that I would be in damage control mode for the last stage. This pattern continued. Feeling fine, but with the hammer down I was getting dropped. I had no middle gears. Just easy, or blowing up. As the finial climb approached I was up front and determined to give it my best. I was instantly dropped. After a bit I found a rhythm and told my self it would be ok. As the steep climb leveled I got into a group and we started working well. After what seemed like forever I was out of water and still 8 miles from the finish. However after a bit more work and preying for the finish we were catching the GC leaders group! I couldn’t believe it! With 4 miles to go and one last climb we caught on to the lead group minus 4 attackers up the road.
As the attacks came I did everything in my power to stay in contact. In the end I was 15th on the day and preserved my 13th over all.
I was lucky Danny (the GC leader) was playing things very conservative and not pushing the pace. this was the only reason my chase group was able to catch back on.
All in all I was happy with the effort. I hate the what if’s. What if I wasn’t sick, what if I went with that attack, what if…
What if I gave it 100%.... I did. In the end that is all we can do give 100% and never ever give up.