After the whole National's debacle, I certainly had this race pegged as a priority. Got out last weekend to preview the course with Rachel on a scotching hot day but still had a great ride. It looked like possibility of wind which always makes for an interesting race, but otherwise nothing very special about the course, some rollers but nothing intense.
Turned out to be calm and muggy air for the race, good thing (maybe) I did a lot of training these past few weeks in the heat to acclimate.
Race day we had a 'little snag' on the drive up - what I will now call the 'Great Helmet and Shoe Fiasco of the Millenium'. I'll let Anton fill you in on that one.
It was eventually sorted out by some miracle and Anton got to race after all. But it was a clooose one.
Once into the actual race, the pace reflected the tentative and negative state of mind prevailing in the pack. We started at about 25km/hr for a good long while, got passed by a few joggers, before the first attack. After that it was essentially attack after attack that just got chased down if it got any gap at all. Then the pack would slow down to lows that I simply haven't seen in a race before - like granny gear on the flats sometimes. And because of the violent accelerations every time you tried to blink we still averaged 41km/hr for the whole thing.
But despite the 'I'm watching you, and you and you' mentality, there were some good tries for sure. For example, we got Derrek (team mate) up in a good sized group of 10-15 riders with a solid gap, but their cooperation fell through and the chase behind caught them easily. Annnnd so on, times about a hundred.
We tried every trick in the book to get one of the three of us up the road, counter attacks, I let a gap open behind Brandon while they were drilling it to see if they'd get away, but nah, everyone was chasing everything. I don't know how many moves I was in myself, but enough to be pretty cooked by the end. I was even trying to conserve for the sprint at the end, but I couldn't let certain moves go without a guy from our team so I ended up covering a ton of crap that ultimately went nowhere. A waste of energy in hindsight, but if any of those moves had gotten away with out us.. then I'd be writing about how I should have been covering more...
So in the middle of all this a break of 3 guys got away, interestingly without a single JetFuel rider, the team with the biggest numbers at this race. For the finish, I was just empty and came in with a measly mid pack result.
I didn't feel to fresh going into this race for some reason as well, despite a fairly typical build up to race day.
Really shouldn't have been so creamed in a 145km race like this with no major mountains or climbs.. something felt a lil' off, and I'm blaming not enough rest before hand.
Anyway, it a was fun, exciting race. So from the perspective of good times, it was at least a Sunday afternoon well spent.
Going to rest like a fiend before Tour of the Catskills and its mountainous, 160+km stages in two weeks and see what we can pull out of the bag there.
Enjoy the heat while it lasts, won't be here for too long ;)
Monday, July 25, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Another Two for One Deal: Crit Weekend
This past weekend was another double, with the Detroit City Crit on Saturday followed by the Ciociaro Ontario Cup in Windsor. Both first year races on the calendar on pretty nice courses.
Its tempting to make the usual jokes about Detroit, like 'after the race I patted myself down to find NO bullet holes in me', or whatever, but the part of Detriot we were in was actually pretty nice. Huge murals (not graffiti) on the sides of some apartment buildings, parks, nice stuff. A lot of abandoned buildings right next to fancy high rises though, sure signs of the city's prime being... not now.
The Detroit crit had about 50 starters, I had two team mates, and Anton was racing as well.
Off the start I lined up near the front, but shifted to the back in no time. I apparently still had some pack jitters from the nationals incident and had a hard time trusting in any wheel in front of me. After a few laps I got into the grove of it again and had memorized all the defects in the pavement to take the right lines. I moved up to the front and popped off my first attack.
After some hard charging I found myself in what looked like the perfect breakaway:
Anton, Garneau's strongest guy, two strong riders from Jet Fuel, and one or two others.
Basically the strongest teams in the race were represented in this break and then some, so any chase behind would be getting some proper blockage from our team mates.
But as they say, if it looks too good to be true, probably is. For some reason, 'some rider' on Jet Fuel decides he'll go attacking before we even establish a safe gap over the peloton. Now we've got the other Jet Fuel rider as a passenger and cooperation falls though, then guess what, we get caught. Way to go, us! 'Here's the silver platter sir, just let me remove the ... whahaooaaoaooao *crash bang cling snap*'
So I hang in the pack while Brandon on my team goes out for a counter attack, same when Derrek goes out to do the same after Brandon gets reeled back in. Then I made it into another good looking break with Anton again and some other guys. Chased down eventually....
Then with about 20mins to go, we're all together and with a slight lull in the pace I shoot out from one side of the pack out of a turn. After driving it to get a gap, I finally check behind and see my team mate Derrek on my wheel, who had the exact same idea but came from the other side of the peloton. We have a Jet Fuel rider for company who just sits on, trying to set things up for his sprinter in the bunch. Other than the infiltrator, this was looking good.
We hold a solid gap until the final laps, driving pretty hard obviously, and then with two laps to go, I ride over one of a millionth cracks in the pavement, and flat. As strong as he is, unfortunately Derrek didn't hold of the pack all by himself and got gobbled up on the final lap, and the pack finished with a sprint.
Ahh what could have been.
Some quality pictures here.
------------------------------------------
On Sunday we were back in Windsor for the Ciocaro race. This was on a paved track made for bike racing, but not like a velodrome, which was very cool. Small registration for this race with only 18 guys, so it would be a hard race from the start since everyone will be attacking.
There was so much going on in this race its hard to keep track of the exact order of things, but I remember each of the three of us on Kallisto were taking turns counter attacking and it was Brandon who got into the move that stuck. So did Anton. While they were out there there was more action with the pack and I got into a chase group of 4 guys. The lead group eventually caught what was left of the peloton, with our chase group still out trying to do the same. Brandon got a flat in the breakaway but luckily they were giving free laps for mechanicals here, so he got back in, I learned after the race.
He ended up a controvertial 3rd place to Anton's 2nd. I finished in 7th and Derrek almost bridged up to my chase group by the end and finished right behind us in 9th.
The controversy was that one rider in the lead group who lapped the field had team mates in the lapped group. Those lapped riders hung around to lead him out for the sprint, leaving the other breakaway riders who lapped the field with him to fend for themselves against a full team again... which is the reason one tries to get into a breakaway in the first place, to fight against less riders for the win!
But technically it was the decision of the commissars to make, and they made it that way so you have to adjust tactics accordingly (the other option is to pull lapped riders out of the race entirely, but it rarely happens).
Well... the results weren't quite what they mighta been, but I think we did a respectable job getting one of us from the team into every move of the races and coming within a hair width of another double podium/win weekend.
Fun weekend overall for sure, good road trip with the Guelph posse, never a dull moment.
Its tempting to make the usual jokes about Detroit, like 'after the race I patted myself down to find NO bullet holes in me', or whatever, but the part of Detriot we were in was actually pretty nice. Huge murals (not graffiti) on the sides of some apartment buildings, parks, nice stuff. A lot of abandoned buildings right next to fancy high rises though, sure signs of the city's prime being... not now.
The Detroit crit had about 50 starters, I had two team mates, and Anton was racing as well.
Off the start I lined up near the front, but shifted to the back in no time. I apparently still had some pack jitters from the nationals incident and had a hard time trusting in any wheel in front of me. After a few laps I got into the grove of it again and had memorized all the defects in the pavement to take the right lines. I moved up to the front and popped off my first attack.
After some hard charging I found myself in what looked like the perfect breakaway:
Anton, Garneau's strongest guy, two strong riders from Jet Fuel, and one or two others.
Basically the strongest teams in the race were represented in this break and then some, so any chase behind would be getting some proper blockage from our team mates.
But as they say, if it looks too good to be true, probably is. For some reason, 'some rider' on Jet Fuel decides he'll go attacking before we even establish a safe gap over the peloton. Now we've got the other Jet Fuel rider as a passenger and cooperation falls though, then guess what, we get caught. Way to go, us! 'Here's the silver platter sir, just let me remove the ... whahaooaaoaooao *crash bang cling snap*'
So I hang in the pack while Brandon on my team goes out for a counter attack, same when Derrek goes out to do the same after Brandon gets reeled back in. Then I made it into another good looking break with Anton again and some other guys. Chased down eventually....
Then with about 20mins to go, we're all together and with a slight lull in the pace I shoot out from one side of the pack out of a turn. After driving it to get a gap, I finally check behind and see my team mate Derrek on my wheel, who had the exact same idea but came from the other side of the peloton. We have a Jet Fuel rider for company who just sits on, trying to set things up for his sprinter in the bunch. Other than the infiltrator, this was looking good.
We hold a solid gap until the final laps, driving pretty hard obviously, and then with two laps to go, I ride over one of a millionth cracks in the pavement, and flat. As strong as he is, unfortunately Derrek didn't hold of the pack all by himself and got gobbled up on the final lap, and the pack finished with a sprint.
Ahh what could have been.
Some quality pictures here.
------------------------------------------
On Sunday we were back in Windsor for the Ciocaro race. This was on a paved track made for bike racing, but not like a velodrome, which was very cool. Small registration for this race with only 18 guys, so it would be a hard race from the start since everyone will be attacking.
There was so much going on in this race its hard to keep track of the exact order of things, but I remember each of the three of us on Kallisto were taking turns counter attacking and it was Brandon who got into the move that stuck. So did Anton. While they were out there there was more action with the pack and I got into a chase group of 4 guys. The lead group eventually caught what was left of the peloton, with our chase group still out trying to do the same. Brandon got a flat in the breakaway but luckily they were giving free laps for mechanicals here, so he got back in, I learned after the race.
He ended up a controvertial 3rd place to Anton's 2nd. I finished in 7th and Derrek almost bridged up to my chase group by the end and finished right behind us in 9th.
The controversy was that one rider in the lead group who lapped the field had team mates in the lapped group. Those lapped riders hung around to lead him out for the sprint, leaving the other breakaway riders who lapped the field with him to fend for themselves against a full team again... which is the reason one tries to get into a breakaway in the first place, to fight against less riders for the win!
But technically it was the decision of the commissars to make, and they made it that way so you have to adjust tactics accordingly (the other option is to pull lapped riders out of the race entirely, but it rarely happens).
Well... the results weren't quite what they mighta been, but I think we did a respectable job getting one of us from the team into every move of the races and coming within a hair width of another double podium/win weekend.
Fun weekend overall for sure, good road trip with the Guelph posse, never a dull moment.
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