This particular race was a focus for me as this circuit will be used in the Devo stage race this year. I wanted to get out and race hard on the circuit once so I would know what to expect in early April.

From the finish line, the circuit went into a cross-headwind along a mildly rolling road for a couple of kilometers. A slight rise to a right turn then put you on a flatter stretch with a cross tail wind. Another right and another cross tailwind down the only real hill of the circuit. At the bottom of the hill, another right took us onto Murchie Road and several left and right corners before heading back to uphill drag to the finish line.

Before the race, I had expected a few things. The first, that an attack coming out of the long front stretch onto 0 avenue could be effective. Cross headwind to cross tailwind can stretch things out. Also, with a large part of the course being on some twisting roads, a break could well get out of sight. Finally, if the weather was particularly miserable, that would also bode well for the break.

Basically, I called it.

I had a couple of tactical goals for the race:

1. Stay on the inside and out of the wind on the the long 240th Street stretch.
2. Jump across to and start a couple of breaks.
3. Stay in the top 10 as much as possible.

By the time lap 4 (of 7, for a total of 56km) rolled around I had put in a few hard attacks and bridged up to a couple more. Nothing lasted for more than a couple of minutes. I was also thinking seriously of abandoning. My fingers were numb enough that taking a drink from the bottle wasn’t really possible anymore and the feet were numb so standing up and riding wasn’t really an option either.

Still short attacks went, guys getting a few seconds on the field and then drifting back. Basically no one was willing to face the long headwind alone and it appeared that the field was tired and miserable enough that the aggressive riders just wouldn’t get oraganized.

Three laps to go and I decided two things. One, I would attack on 0 avenue with a lap and a half, about 12km, to go. Two, after I was caught, at the first available opportunity I would head back to the car and call it a day.

Twenty more painfully cold minutes followed as we got to my planned attack point.

I came around the corner in about tenth place and put myself into the fast lane. When I was fifth in line I accelerated hard, about 200m before the right hander onto the downhill. I rounded that corner and took a look behind me to see what had happened, I definitely had a gap and someone was following me. This made me happy. I continued to pull hard, attempting to extend the gap before I rotated around.

Several seconds later, I glanced around again and realized I was alone. Oh. Crap.

The time trial started. I hit the wet, slippery corners at safe speeds and anywhere the road was good enough, I went down into the invisible aerobar position. I didn’t expect the break to last terribly long. But it just wouldn’t end. At the bell, with about 8km to go, I had a pretty sizable gap. After coming off the headwind stretch, I started trying to count the gap by glancing back every now and then. With half a lap, about 4km left to go including the downhill stretch I guestimated that I had a gap of somewhere north of 20 seconds. At this point I realized I had a very real chance of winning.

I pushed harder and checked my six out of most corners. The gap was coming down, but very slowly. Finally, after hours (20 minutes), I checked behind me one last time and sat up, lifted an arm and crossed the line a few seconds ahead of the sprint.

Solo, off the front for twenty minutes to a win. That’s easily my best race by a long shot. I’m over halfway to an upgrade now, that should be coming in the next handful of races I suspect.

Coastal Thursday Nighter – May 13

Fifteen or so starters. I arrived at 6:15 due to the website claiming a 7:00 start time for the C racers. That was incorrect, nothing like lining up to a < 30 minute criterium with no warmup. Supposedly I wasn’t the only one who got mixed up and the field was a touch smaller than it should have been.

So we’ll assume 15 starters. Fourteen different jerseys in the race, the only two guys who appeared to be on the same team were both in white jerseys, we will call them White1 and White2. No one else really mattered in this race.

We take off, my plan at this point is to spend the first several laps warming up, then see how it goes. Specifically, I intend on sticking with the lead group the entire race if possible and then attacking with about 1km to go and seeing if I can hold it. Two or so laps into the race, White1 takes off on a solo adventure. White2 works his way to the front and rides at a comfortable tempo. Twoish laps later, White1 takes the first preme of the race. White2 is still pulling and since he’s actually going at a decent clip, no one really steps in to help out. Another lap or so later and the guy out by himself sits and up and chills at the back of the pack for a while. White2 is *still* pulling.

Six laps to go and the bell rings for the second preme of the race. Coming onto the the front stretch, the pace gets high and the two white jersey guys are right at the front, drilling it. The leadout pulls off and I’m pretty sure his teammate snags the second preme. I accelerate fairly hard to stay in the slipstream and am sitting in about fifth place. Tactical thoughts at this point are: White1 spent time off the front and mixed it up in the sprint. White2 pulled a long way and also mixed it up. I bet they are kind of cooked and no one else is doing much.

Screw it.

Out of corner two with just under 5 laps to go, I slide out of the line to the right and start accelerating. When I pass #2 in line, someone yells something about someone going and I stand and sprint hard. I jump somewhere a bit above 50km/h and then sit and ride hard. By the 4 to go board, I’ve got 10 seconds on the group. At 3.5 to go, I make the conscious decision to try to stick it out and get into my survival pace.

I get a maximum of about 15 seconds, 10 of which is eaten up on the penultimate lap and am caught with about 300m to go. Straight back through the field and off the back.

According to the computer, the first 1:40 of the attack was at an average speed of 45km/h and the entire 10 minute duration of the thing was about 39km/h, which is pretty damned good for me. Definitely wouldn’t have stood up to a larger field, but with the small field it almost worked.

One thing I noticed though: Pretty much everyone hangs out at the start/finish line. The first time across alone, there was a bit of clapping. Second lap, a bit more. by the third lap that I was out in front, it seemed that there were a lot of people getting pretty vocal, which was awesome. Sort of a, “Huh, he’s not giving up, I didn’t expect that.”

Campbell Heights Classic

A fun course. Two short climbs, one really steep and the other merely steep. Most of the rest is flat to gently downhill. This was also my first ‘real’ cat 4 race with, according to the results, 28 starters. For me, this race comes down to 16 climbs and how many of them I can get over while remaining attached to the front group. The number was 10. On the sixth climb up 184th Street, I blew up and probably dropped 30 seconds during that 300 metre stretch alone. I kept going and was swept up by the grupetto and finished the race with them.

Plus sides: When I did get shelled, the lead group only had 13 guys left in it, including me. So I did hang in longer than more than half the field, which is a decent sign I suppose.

Also of note, this race did include the longest sustained, “Holy Crap we’re going fast” of any race I’ve been in thus far. After climb 1 of lap 4, we went to ludicrous speed for the better part of a lap. This reduced the field down to the mentioned 13 from whatever it was previously. In the cat 5 races I had done, this kind of acceleration happened, but it would last for a minute or two, not several. This lead to possibly the most pain I have ever felt on a bike.

Well, that or the crit, that didn’t feel overly good either, but it mentally feels better if you’re off the front as opposed to clinging on for dear life.

So that’s three races in a row where I finished off the back for whatever reason. Not for lack of trying though.