Killington Stage Race, Stage 1: May 28th

This update is coming from a ghost town ski resort that is probably bumping in the winter time, now occupied by a bunch of skinny people in tights at every turn.

Had a good drive down here, nice and early Thursday with the Rachel. Seamless trip except for a few exciting episodes. Exit 27, apparently a tricky exit to take. Ask her about it. 

That night Vermont had the most insane thunderstorms I've ever seen. I thought maybe the Rapture WAS coming, but alas, the sun rose the next morning, much to my delight as now I have a few more days/months/millenia to figure out how to spend my last pennies and moments on earth. The lightshow went until at least 3am with torrential rain. By morning things were looking up, sun all day.

Pre-rode the stage 1 loop the next day to check out the 'KOM' and ridiculous downhill finish on this course. Quotations because the KOM was a 6km false flat of about 2-3% with a maybe 4% final km. Then riding into the finish straight I was softpedaling in my 12 doing ~55km/hr, so this was going to be a fast finish!

The race starts and instantly the action starts. Pace is right up to 50km/hr straight away and attacks are flying. On the first lap there were some good moves going clear, 5 guys or more, but there are so many different teams here amongst the 115 riders that SOMEONE is always interested in chasing. 

I got off the front coming up to the 2nd KOM with  Louis Garneau rider, I think the guy who won Battenkill a few weeks ago, and our teams did a good job to block and we were out there for a little while, but didn't make it to the KOM before other teams dragged us back into the fold. 

The rest of the race was spent chasing a huge breakaway of ~15 guys that got away after that, and just riding in the bunch over the rolling terrain was NOT a cakewalk at all, the chasing at the front of the pack was pretty fierce. On the last lap the big group was unbelievably caught.. in an Ontario race a move that big would have lapped the field 10 times. At this rate I decided I wasn't even going to think about the final sprint, we were hitting 80km/hr each time through there and I have no reason to be rubbing elbows at that speed for a sprint where we were all together, where I'll probably blow away in the wind before getting a result, so instead I considered attacking over the KOM on the last lap.

NOPE! By then sprinter's teams were setting up their guys, as it was only ~7km to go, and I was doing more than enough work to just hang in there. Each time we went around a bend and I got a good look at whoever was on the front at that moment, they were clearly drilling it, eating their handlebar tape so nobody behind would attack, and it worked very well :S. 

The finish was so bananas I was happy to just chill and hold onto the back of the pack and avoid any crashes that might happen, none did though. On the final ~3km of the race, I was riding at about my threshold in my 53-11, and for the final 2.5 minutes we AVERAGED 66km/hr. I can't say I ever finished a race that quickly before! Eventually roll in 74th, same time as the winner. Was an interesting stage, especially for a relatively flat course.

Tomorrow's TT will be the first time for me actually racing w a TT bike, again thanks to Rach!  We'll see how that goes! Not expecting anything amazing but I hope to do at least mid pack... hopefully not to much to ask of myself from the first time racing a different bike and not training for TT's at all...

And here's a look at the nearby view. Its ok. Incidentally, Monday's 3rd and final stage finishes right there on the road on the right. And yeah, there's some climbing to do before we get there ;) . More to come soon.

Have a good weekend!

Nith River Race Report: Sunday May 22nd

Nith was a new race on the calendar this year, and the organizers did a really good job with the new course/venue, I thought it was awesome.

I rode out with Aaron last Thursday on his commute to Waterloo and continued on to check the course out, which was on the far side of Waterloo from Guelph. Never ridden that far in that direction, so was a good little bike adventure to get there and back. 150km round trip with lots of rolling hills and 'farm scenery', if you will.

The recon mission was well worth it as the course had some quirks, such as wind EVERYWHERE. No big hills or anything, but enough ups and downs that 132km of it on Sunday would make it a course to wear everyone down.

Headed out, race day, after a monster breakfast with Stu, Kira and her awesome fam, and drove through a major storm that left only sunshine at the sign in. Wasn't sure what I should pack in my jersey pocket... my sunblock or umbrella? I opted for a gel in the end.

Was really looking forward to this race, but the only thing was some lingering soreness in my muscles from some workouts I did earlier in the week. I had plenty of rest days this week so it was strange to feel that way on race day, still not sure what that was... but it was time to race and forget about that for now.

One of my goals for this race was to be more attentive and discerning to groups that went off the front, and think hard before bridging any gaps to groups that were just destined to be dust in the path of the giant vacuum-cleaner.

The first of eight laps lots of moves were attempted, and I guessed right about all of them as I didn't try to reach any of them, and they were all brought back . The second lap, the peloton seemed very attentive and jumpy still and I thought it would be too early for a big break to go. So I'm fighting my way through the crosswind section, probably 20th back or so, and it gets strung out and a split occurs, 10 guys deep, the rest is just carnage with riders on their own everywhere. It was kinda awesome, except when you're 20 wheels back, behind the most significant selection.

Over the next brutal few km in the wind, it shakes out and I'm in a 5-man group, chasing a 3 man group ahead, which is chasing the first group of 10 guys. We start rotating, but soon get some hanger's on. I look around and recognize these chaps, some of whom I know to be quite strong, but they're saying they just can't pull through. I thought I was getting hustled into doing more work, but not so as it would soon turn out.

With the sloppy rotation we had, the peloton behind was gaining fast and the groups ahead were getting no closer. About 100m between us and the giant hoover, almost everyone sits up in my group and gives up, but I've seen this before: if we get caught, we're spending the next 90km in a 30km/hr group ride. No thanks.

I look to my former teammate in the little group, who I only then recognized in his different kit, and tell him to come with me, as he was the only guy working with me at this point. He's a solid rider, so I thought he'd be with me no problem, but as I come by he's soaking wet from the earlier efforts and as I accidentally gap him, I ask if he's ok and he only shakes his head, 'no'. Oh boy.. just me now, sh*t!

A do-or-die moment, and I commit to catching that 2nd chase group up the road. I floor it as hard as I can and put some daylight between myself and the peloton, and slowly, agonizingly slowly, reach the chase group after 5 minutes solo that may have subtracted or added years to my life, I may never know.

After finally catching, I sit on for a few minutes, regain my senses, and try not to puke on my bike. On this course with the wind, even sitting on a small group is work, so even after the catch I had to be careful not to pop off until I was recharged.

And so there it was, odometer reading 42km, the rest of the race would be us four chasing the ten guys ahead and battling the crosswinds for the next 90km.

The lead group apparently split, and we became group 3 on the road, and ultimately finished 9 minutes back! I couldn't believe how far back we were.. but considering that there was no coasting/recovery anywhere on the course I'm sure I was more drained that I realized at the time.

Final sprint in our group set up after an attack from Evan, we regrouped, then 600m before the line, on the hill, I put in a dig, get caught, and as 2 guys come by I go to catch their wheel but the 4th guy is half-wheeling me on the side I needed to go to, and he wouldn't move up or back. Felt pretty cheap because to not run him off the road I stuck it out in the wind while he hid in the draft and eventually sprinted by just at the line.

Aside from the anti-climactic/lame finish, it was a fun, hard race.

The results showed just how hard it was for everyone in every group. I ended up just 13th of 36 starters, but there were only 17 finishers! That chasing peloton behind us just kept dwindling as the race wore on, apparently.

Honorable mentions to teammate Derrek who again killed it, finishing 3rd, no thanks to me whatsoever, and Anton who finally makes the main breakaway, only to be taken down by sushi/mystery malady in the end. Still hung onto the group though, so not bad at all.

Well, this weekend its off to Vermont for the Killington stage race. Two road stages sandwiching a TT, where thanks to Rach I will actually race a TT bike for once. Updates to come!

Bayden

Bike the Bruce Race Report

Headed up to the Bruce Peninsula yesterday for this race on a fairly flat but pretty interesting course. Enough twisty roads, one twisting along the coast of Lake Huron offering a nice distracting view, and a LOT of wind. Gusts didn't stop all day and on pretty much every section/turn, wind was a factor. 

The action started right off the gun with 132km ahead when someone snapped their chain and took a tumble. Took a little detour on the gravel shoulder and caught up the already charging front of the race. 

Two riders each from the other main teams at this race were making a little move, being the Kallisto rider nearest the front I went with them, only to meet an instant chase down by the pack. 

Then a large counter attack goes with some more teammates in it, and being tired I let it go and see what happens. All teams were in this move too, and it gets minutes ahead in no time. So let the games begin. The pack slows down drastically with all teams in lock down mode, not letting any more attacks get away to chase the break. 

Anton and a few other rides see the impending boredom of the next km's setting in and move to the front to make some things happen. Anton pulls for a while and drills it up a climb, putting the pack single file, and when he comes off the front someone else drills it and as Anton comes drifting by us yells something which I didn't quite hear, but probably to the effect of 'gahh!'.

A small 2nd group of three get off the front, a teammate in there, and they stayed away for a good while. Anton and a few others just rotating on the front got them back. Once they were back and we turned up the hill I put in a dig to see who would follow. Turns out almost everyone and we were all back together by the top. Then the counterattack goes AGAIN including Charlie (teammate) and Anton. Kinda boxed in and tired from jamming it up the hill I have to just watch it ride away, knowing it would likely stay away..... 

Enter phase two of the race... stuck in the 3rd group on the road, the remnants of the race if you will. Just a bunch of teammates of riders up in the breakaways and a bunch of independent riders who also happened to miss the breaks. Still quite a ways to go, at least 50km, some riders just go to the front and ride a hard tempo, the teams get into it as well, just to make sure we finish the race before Tuesday. 

To break the monotony even more a million attacks start going, just for the hell of it it seems. One of our remaining guys just rides off the front for almost 30km solo, but with all the attacks and counter attacks he gets caught within 3km to go to the line. At that point the one other teammate I had in this group, Brandon, eyes me to get on his wheel. He makes a solid leadout, slogging it out into the wind, up the false flat to the finish line. I do my best to make that effort worthwhile, pull out a 2nd in the bunch sprint for 13th overall. Nothing too special, but definitely an interesting race overall. Learned some new tricks this race that I be sure to use next weekend on a course that will be fairly similar. 

Springbank Race Report

Some people love this race, some people hate it. The 2.2 km loop in Springbank park has one downhill corner that's a little tricky, but isn't as dangerous as reputation may suggest.

An interesting edition of the race this year: tiny field of 19 riders, two teams between them had half the riders in the race, and pouring rain all race long.

We went early and watched Rachel's race where the weather was looking good, then about an hour before our race it started really coming down and cooling off. Tried to warm up during my... warm up, but the rain was just too cold to actually get warm. Should have brought a rain-parka.

The race itself was interesting to watch, from the inside at least. The teams would set up breakaways, and then chase them down, even with their own riders up the road. It was a little strange at times to be honest. Clearly the Garneau team was working for their rider who won the race last year, and it was a bit of a battle between them and the Darkhorse Flyer guys to get who they wanted up the road.

During all this I made an early attack that was chased down, and went with several other attacks with the teams, all chased down. It was turning into a race situation where the team that was the most tired of chasing would be the one that missed out, because it was just constant attacks and counter attacks.

As if that weren't enough to make the race hard, we were all riding through so much rain and standing water it was like having a pressure washer shooting you in the face the whole time.

Eventually Anton, who was riding 3rd wheel at the time, decided to let a gap open between himself and the two pace-setting Garneau and Darkhorse riders in front of him. They slowly rode away, seeing their gap, and the peloton slowly creeped back behind. Like all other moves this race I was just waiting for one of the teams to chase themselves down again.

Then near the back of the group (not far from the front when it's this small), I see Garneau's main guy attack. Surely Darkhorse will start chasing this and bring it back, otherwise I would have tried to go with the move for sure. Unbelievably, Darkhorse didn't react at all. The guy bridges up, and the breakaway stays away to win. Talk about rolling the dice. He might have attacked so hard the Darkhorse team couldn't react in time to catch his wheel or something, but I think everyone was just getting tired.

Meanwhile the cold is setting right into my bones and I'm looking forward to finishing this race. I set up for the sprint and jump from exactly where I wanted to, and then after about 5 pedal strokes my legs almost seized up from I can only guess the cold and previous efforts, it wasn't cramping that's for sure, and got passed by almost everyone who was left by the time I cross the finish line. Never felt that way before, definitely the worst sprint of my life!

Other than the last 500m, the race went fairly well. To bad they're the ones that often count the most! Next time a thermal wetsuit will be worn for a race in conditions like yesterday, fix that right up.

And finally, gotta say the new bike is amazing, now that I've actually raced with it. Its so stiff and responsive it just never lets you down. The somewhat lower stance it has, compared to other bikes (Argon 18 feature that has the bottom bracket 5mm lower), was no problem when leaning into the corners.

I'm sure everyone's as sick of this monsoon weather as I am, hopefully spring will show up one of these days and we can ride in the sun soon!

Mess Report: Good Friday Road Race

Things were looking good going into this one. We had good representation from the team with 8 riders, I was feeling good, new bike, what could go wrong... turns out a lot!

After a little delayed start we set off 'into' the tailwind, already shivering quickly go up to race speed and moving up towards the front, our team would be active today and making moves early.

Going around the first turn, into a strong crosswind from the right, almost the entire field went and stayed straddling the yellow line, it was all over the place! With yellow line rule, as usual, in effect, this would lead to the disqualification of about 3/4 of the entire field over the race! Although unbeknownst to anyone until the end because they weren't pulling riders due to DQ's.

Onto the hills, I was riding about 10th position and speeding up to go with an attack from a teammate, I see some surge on my right and someone falls into the guy next to me, who then falls, quite literally, onto me. The three of us go down and we have a silly mess of tangled handlebars. After we finally untangle bikes and we get up, I look around to get my waterbottle, still in the cage that got broken off and stick it in my pocket. Elbow is stiff and chain is off so by the time I'm going again, the pack is long gone. Race over, after only 10km.

On the brighter side, teamates Charlie and Adam (who drove all way up from NY) went on to take the 1-2 for the team, with the others doing fine work watching all attacks attempting to get away and bridge up from the peloton. And when the results come up turns out I got swept up in the DQ Blizzard too! Only 3 from our team actually placed in the official results, very odd day.

The next two weeks will be fun trying to sleep with some new road rash, but no major injuries and the bike is fine at least.

Next race is Springbank in about a week. Had a good result there in S3 last year, will go for the same this time around in S1/2.

Enjoy the sun today, possibly the nicest day we've had all year!

A new ride

The other day our team bikes came in, they're lookin' something like this:

Wheels of Bloor set up the team with these racing machines. Put on some wheels I had waiting and off we go, just in time for the first 'actual' road race this Friday.

Put in a few good rides on it so far and it rides just like it looks.. fast. Just rock solid too, can't flex the frame a nanometer even when I'm laying down my 3000 Watt sprints with my gorilla legs. 

First time riding an Argon 18 and I definitely dig the Canadian factor going on there, although of course they are actually manufactured in the same place as all other carbon bike parts. 

I'll be back with an update on how 'the bike' performs this Friday. Enjoy the brief glimpse of sun we have coming the next two days :) 

Paris to Ancaster Race Report

This was a really fun race. Definitely one of the most unique styles of bike races around. Over the 60km of this race we had everything from full speed, spinning out our gears on the roads to barely going 10km/hr under full power over bumpy, muddy, grass stretches.

Funny how such a race would end up as the largest in Canada, but it is! Over 2000 people raced on Sunday.

Big thanks to Rachel for lending me her cross bike for the race, even though she may have been trying to kill me. For all its 'incidental' quirks, such as non-downshiting front shifter, squiggly rear wheel, and exploding waterbottle cage, it was a fine ride.

Speaking of thanks, thanks to the organizer our team was granted access to the 'top 100' coral, where you can start in the top 100. Usually you have to finish in the top 100 the year before to get there. So that saved us having to fight through +300 people on rail trails to get to the front (not all 2000 people go in one wave, just ~350 in the first).

Mike D from Speed River raced with his video cam too, should be some good footage on that!

After the army of cyclists was let loose to invade the farm roads of southern Ontario, I worked myself up to the top 30 or so riders before the big funnel onto the first rail trail, off the open road. Pace eased up after a totally frenetic start. Figuratively bumped in to Andrew D., had a little chat and he musta been feeling charitable as he told me on the hill just up ahead is where it all hits the fan.

Literally out of nowhere, its a right turn up this loose gravel hill, and I was totally not ready for this thinking the hill was coming on a proper dirt road, not off the rail trail! This was where the first big selection was made. Everyone was off their bike and bumping elbows up this hill, shoving gravel everywhere. By the time I scramble to the top I can see a group of about 20 guys riding away, guys who were expecting that little turn! Good on them, that's apparently part of how you win this race.

So I started hammering in pursuit, they weren't out of reach yet, and things got single file really quickly. Started bridging to/from groups, everyone gasping, let the gong show begin!

Turn onto some forest trail about 10km into the race, bike through two small ponds, instant double-foot-soaker at 2 degrees C, awesome! Emerge onto road again, see group ahead about 700m now, time to bury the needle some more. Had a few others with me in this chase until next section...and repeat.

While chasing this lead group out on the road, there were several km's where we were all spinning out our gears, going at least 50km/hr for km's on end.  Some mountain bikers got shelled just because of their easier gears wouldn't let them spin fast enough!

Well the lead group was getting away, we were too few and not strong enough to get them back. About halfway through the race, my teamate Derek shows up, after bridging solo for who knows how long. No big deal. What does he do? Goes straight to the front and starts drilling it. So much ass was hauled on those open rail trails with the winds, so many train jokes to make. But I won't do that to you.

One of the more 'interesting' parts of the course came near the end, called the 'chute' I think. Its a downhill trail that makes you wonder if the best way through is to ride in and hope for the best or to bellyflop into it and use your momentum to slide through like a greased pig in spandex. No time to think that through, so I chose the former. This was bonkers - not knowing what was coming up. We had bricks, broken cement and all kinds of stuff underneath the mud. Picking up ridiculous speed I wanted to reach for the brakes but between all the bumps and sliding, that didn't happen. Instead, I came to an unplanned stop by some unseen dirt-dwelling piece of rubble, just standing there wondering what just grabbed my wheels. So I rode out at a more civilized pace without having any dirt sandwiches.

After not too long I finally make it to the final hill there the race finishes, see Josh camped out taking wicked pics again.. hmm maybe I'll post some up here someday...
That thing was steep. Checked about five times to see if I had an easier gear, and I never did :(.

Come in 22nd at the end, and I can't help but wonder how it would have turned out if I were prepared for that first uphill turn where the split happened.... Regardless, a fun little adventure with the snow and winds, and just the race itself. A race with character for sure!

For the next race we might finally NOT get covered in mud.. we'll have see. The Good Friday road race.. can never remember what day its on but its soon. We might have our full team out for this one, looking forward to it!

Happy Monday, once again