This will be a short one, not a whole lot to write about the 6km I lasted in this race.
Basically on the descent, someone either dropped a waterbottle and someone ran over it starting a pileup, or people just started running into the rear of riders in front of them, and everyone started bouncing off one another and about 10 of us hit the deck.
Luckily it wasn't on the fast part of of the descent, I kept my distance and lost a few positions there to just keep safe.
Anyway, the bike got destroyed, which was quite unfortunate. I'm fine, just a bit of road rash. I might have landed on the guy who fell in front of me, not too sure.
So I watched the rest of the race from the sidelines. What a crazy race it turned out to be. So many DNFs from those who were caught behind this crash and more from the attrition that followed, no matter the group.
42 of 170 starters finished, crazy.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Two for One Babble! Double Race weekend, Cambridge Crit and K.W. Classic
Just coming off a wicked race weekend with two back to back. Some tired legs here, but well worth it.
Saturday saw the running of the first Cambridge Crit. Will they possibly turn this into a stage race with KW the next day? Who knows. Maybe the Guelph Crit will be brought back some day too... hmmm.
Either way, the course for this first time race was on quiet streets and perfect pavement with easy, safe corners, exactly what you'd want in a crit course.
Headed down with Anton, got in a proper warm up on the course, found out what Sound Solutions was by incidentally asking the owner of the company riding in his team kit, and started the race with a good sized group of 25.
Then, THIS happened (disclaimer - more gratuitous action shots!):
(not sure who snapped the money shot here)
The first half of the races was full of moves going off the front by teams who had 4-5 guys, plus others testing their legs. A good tactic from the teams, but nothing was exactly sticking. I radio'd Anton on the walkie talkie to come with me for a dig of our own. We shoot out and get a good, albeit short lived gap. As we were getting caught it looked a bit disorganized on the front (still behind us) and I was still not quite caught so I dug again. What the heck.
Anton lets the gap open behind me and before I know it I'm riding alone. Up the road I see a Jet Fuel rider, not sure when he got away, but I soon made it up to him. Together we hold a 20 sec. gap over the field for the next 30 mins. While the gap was smaller at the beginning, a prime was called, and we hold it until then (and then some) and I end up taking a prime. Woot.
Anton says the chase behind was disorganized, just hard attacks from the one Planet Energy rider then chase, then lull, then repeat. Eventually though, a group of 4-5 guys breaks away from the peloton and catches the Jet Fuel rider and I with two laps to go. As soon as the catch was made, organization in the break falls though, and the peloton's shadow was creeping back up to us.
Who would want to be caught like that... so out of the first corner of the last lap, I attack from 2nd wheel with everything I had, hoping to gap the hangers on at the back who should have been more fresh than us powering the break. I see past my seatpost that the chasing wheel was losing ground on me, so I go for it all the way. Solo all the way to the last corner and 'sprint' the final 200 m to hold the chase off. Barely. They shut the gap down a lot in the headwind section, but there was enough left to sit up and savour the moment a little. First S1/2 win, on the day that I upgraded officially to S1!
Waiting...waiting...
(Photo: Gabhan's Dad, Mr. Gabhan)
The finish:.
Big thanks to Mike M. for sticking around after his 3rd place finish in the earlier race to film this.
--------------------------------
The next day saw good racing conditions for KW. Perfect weather and WINDY. The crosswinds made this a really hard race. The first of the 130 km's started out fast. By one lap of twenty into the race, the peloton was already splitting apart. Just carnage. It often came back together, but a lot of legs were getting softened up by all the action. A team mate got into the first break, Anton too, we (and teamates of others in the break) start to block, and they get out of sight in no time.
As the laps wear on attacks and chases from teamates in the pack keep going. When Derrek (my last team mate in the pack) attacks, he gets away, but another solid rider goes after him a bit later. I have to jump on this and burn a huge match there. The two of us stayed away for half a lap or so, but got reeled in.
Derrek's group catches the front break, and behind in my group it was just attrition from there on in. Maybe 20 riders at this point, each lap it gets smaller and smaller. Each attack from our group shells a few more riders, and one or two get away off the front to ride in no man's land between groups for the rest of the day.
Covering those moves and accelerations all day (too many to even mention) through the wind was tough, and I think I definitely dulled my edge by pushing so hard the day before. But another good lesson in racing with crosswinds.
Our group now whittled to about 10 guys on the second last lap, one takes a flyer. Nobody care's because we're all visibly smoked, share a laugh or two (its over for us, so who cares) and just want to finish. On the last time through the crosswinds I go out to catch him just for kicks. He attacks near the finish as we're holding off the little group, and I couldn't be bothered to follow the millionth attack of the day for 15th place, so I just ride in at my own pace for 16th.
Not a super performance for me at KW, but we got two of the three of us from the team into the break, Derrek killing it, again, to take the W. Double win for the team this weekend, have to be happy with that.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Killington Stage Race, Stages 2 & 3
The time trial on Sunday was fun, but I didn't seem to exactly break the sound barrier. 17km on a very nice course though, mostly flat on a nice twisty highway by the river.
Not much to say about a TT except that I pushed really hard on the pedals for a while, and hoped for the best. The whole experiment of racing a TT bike for the first time went fairly well too, I didn't pull anything or get blown into the ditch, all was good.
Stopped the clock at 25:18, for a whopping 62nd place.
The next and last stage was a good one, major climbs, but only 100km in length. Format was predictable, the Louis Garneau team who had ~5 guys in the top 6 on GC would patrol the front of the peloton and bring any break aways back by the base of the final climb.
An 8 man move got away on the 20km downhill that started a few km after the start, and we picked some of them up who got dropped on the first KOM of the day. I got up to the front at the base of this climb because it was a hard turn onto some 12% roads for the first little while, but nothing major went down at the front, just everyone mashing a steady pace.
Before the 3km dirt section not long after the KOM I moved right up again hoping to bring Andrew, our highest placed rider at 16th, up and out of trouble should this road be crappy, and it ended up being the nicest dirt road I've ever seen. It was smooth with hardly any loose gravel.
Over the top of the long climb on this road the pace went way up and things got a bit strung out, but other than that the race was fairly controlled until the bottom of the final climb. The pace all stage just seemed too high to see many attacks go.
Then on the final climb I rode like a bag of bricks. I let the front group just ride away because I was feeling the onset of the dreaded redline and I knew this climb was long enough, 3km at 9%, that you don't want to go too deep to early.
I spent the rest of my way up riding through the string of other dropped riders, gradually upping my pace and rolled across the line solo for 57th place. Not the worst, but I really expected a better climb from myself than that. I felt fine all day and wasn't bonking or even feeling the efforts from the previous days, it was just like my top end that day was Micky-Mouse go-cart speed.
Even afterwards, was feeling fine after no time, but was ready to hurl a lung on the climb itself. Will be looking into this for sure.
So the final GC position is not really worth a mention, but it was 58th. I think I will submit '58 out of 120' as a new definition for 'completely meh' to Webster.
But all in all the weekend and the race were both awesome. Go ride in Vermont, you will love it. And if you want to go get tuned in a P/1/2 road race, they have those too.
Not much to say about a TT except that I pushed really hard on the pedals for a while, and hoped for the best. The whole experiment of racing a TT bike for the first time went fairly well too, I didn't pull anything or get blown into the ditch, all was good.
Stopped the clock at 25:18, for a whopping 62nd place.
The next and last stage was a good one, major climbs, but only 100km in length. Format was predictable, the Louis Garneau team who had ~5 guys in the top 6 on GC would patrol the front of the peloton and bring any break aways back by the base of the final climb.
An 8 man move got away on the 20km downhill that started a few km after the start, and we picked some of them up who got dropped on the first KOM of the day. I got up to the front at the base of this climb because it was a hard turn onto some 12% roads for the first little while, but nothing major went down at the front, just everyone mashing a steady pace.
Before the 3km dirt section not long after the KOM I moved right up again hoping to bring Andrew, our highest placed rider at 16th, up and out of trouble should this road be crappy, and it ended up being the nicest dirt road I've ever seen. It was smooth with hardly any loose gravel.
Over the top of the long climb on this road the pace went way up and things got a bit strung out, but other than that the race was fairly controlled until the bottom of the final climb. The pace all stage just seemed too high to see many attacks go.
Then on the final climb I rode like a bag of bricks. I let the front group just ride away because I was feeling the onset of the dreaded redline and I knew this climb was long enough, 3km at 9%, that you don't want to go too deep to early.
I spent the rest of my way up riding through the string of other dropped riders, gradually upping my pace and rolled across the line solo for 57th place. Not the worst, but I really expected a better climb from myself than that. I felt fine all day and wasn't bonking or even feeling the efforts from the previous days, it was just like my top end that day was Micky-Mouse go-cart speed.
Even afterwards, was feeling fine after no time, but was ready to hurl a lung on the climb itself. Will be looking into this for sure.
So the final GC position is not really worth a mention, but it was 58th. I think I will submit '58 out of 120' as a new definition for 'completely meh' to Webster.
But all in all the weekend and the race were both awesome. Go ride in Vermont, you will love it. And if you want to go get tuned in a P/1/2 road race, they have those too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)