Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Road Provincials

I had a great day at the provincial road race last Sunday, taking place just outside Waterloo. I enjoyed the course quite a bit. Lots of rolling hills, but nothing long or steep enough to be selective. The wind was minimal also, so it was an easy course to just hang in the pack.

Half way through the first lap a rider went clear, and I cruised off the front of the slow moving pack to join him. We built a little gap without working too hard, and then were joined by a Garneau rider, Evan Mundy after a lap. We got 1:15 up on the pack, only to be almost caught on the finish stretch, and then proceeded to rebuild the gap to 1:20 as the chasers slowed. We went along nice and steady, hoping a rider or 2 would come up and help us out. At the end of lap 3, Ivey came up to us, but being a big threat, the pack was right there chasing hard. The fun was over.

I sat in for a while, watching the counter attack go, and be caught. Then another one go and and be chased down. Then I started to follow some, which went no where. Mid race the winning break went clear, and I missed out. There wasn't too much interest in chasing and the pace slowed down to a crawl as no teams got organized. Some big surges strung us out and almost caused a split starting the last lap, but we slowed again just after keeping it all together.

It would be a sprint for 4th now, or second for U23. Came into the sprint in a perfect spot, went strong the first half of the climb, right at the front, then died about 20m from the line, and lost 5-10 spots. Uphill sprints are tough after 145km of racing!

Hope to race this course again, seemed to suit me well.
Thanks ma and pa for the feeding and driving!

Tomorrow is 5th 12mile race, then Sunday is the Canal days MTB race. Gonna be a fun weekend!

peace

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