Some lessons in suffering

So today I felt pain. Pushed myself harder and deeper than I have in quite some time. And all to simply hold onto the pack. Out of 100 and something starters, about 25 finished. I got pulled/popped with 5 laps of 16 to go. No breaks stayed until 2 dudes got away with 2 to go. There seemed to constantly be someone at the front unhappy with the break and many willing to chase him. My legs felt like lead all day. Luckily, my mind was in the right place and I kept talking myself through the tough times. First lap, I moved myself up slowly into the top 20, and that was basically as far as I got. I fought tooth and nail for several laps for that placing and to move up, my legs just simply had no jump. I could move up on the cobbled section and corner after the start/finish, and the following 6 corners, but then we would hit basically 2 long cross wind straights separated by a 180 turn. Ouch. I started to fall back, and the pack basically stayed death line for the duration of the race. Hard like nothing else to move up on these straights when you are strung out in the gutter in your 53x12 I found. Pissed due to my lack of legs, but happy that I suffered through it and closed any gaps needed and simply stayed glued to the wheel in front of me through these sections. My mind would say move up (as I knew I needed too), but my legs would just not respond. I moved up when I could, but people where just getting shelled so fast that I was basically just keeping myself in the race. My legs finally gave out after 2 hours. Only about 45 minutes from the finish, but they had nothing left. Not a good feeling, either in my legs or in my head. But I suffered, and I was happy with that. At least the weather was decent. Little humid for Belgium though, had the asthma acting up a bit. Looking forward to a nice recovery day tomorrow. Perhaps into the patios of Brugges...