Niagara Classic!

This was a big race for me as my training plan had me peaking for this event. I have been feeling great all week so I knew today would work out great. The course was 5 laps of a 12km loop with a nice steep climb at the end of every lap. A lot of riders feared this effingham wall but I was not overly concerned. But maybe I should have been. It went through some nice quiet roads near Pelham, ON. that maybe could have been a bit wider :p The weather was beautiful, no wind and hot!

Now to break down my race. On the first lap I went through riding towards the front with my buddies on team CHCH. I wanted to be near the front so I could see what the course was like, not having pre rode. I tried to take it as easy as I could up the 'wall' but the guys at the front were pushing the pace. It didn't make much sense because once they got to the top they slowed right down so everyone could catch on.

Second lap I thought I'd better drop back and recover. This is where I found out no body wanted to do any work. Towards the end of the lap I worked back up to the front and tried picking it up again. Again I held the same strategy on the wall.

Third lap after the climb I went right to the front and started to push the pace hoping to break up the peloton a bit. For the rest of the lap I took it relatively easy to keep some gas in the tank.

The fourth lap was where things started to go. I was about half way back in the pack and we were going super easy. So on the third stretch I rode up the left side to the front and just started moving. I looked back and there was only one guy with me. I thought great, maybe we can work together and have this stick. Little did I know his teammate was 'guaranteed to win if it came to a group climb'. He didn't help at all. I was able to work hard enough to build up a decent gap and pick up some KOM points at the top of the hill. I kept trying to encourage him to help but he wanted none of it.

Fifth lap, we made it half way down the first stretch before buddy's teammate joined us. All of a sudden he wants to work now! It was too late though, as we got to the second stretch we were caught. I stayed towards the front of the pack with not as much energy as I would have liked being with everyone. Once we made it do effingham street I knew to stick to the left side just incase things went crazy on the climb that id have the left side of the road to move onto. That whole street on this lap was hell. I put too many eggs in the break away basket and didn't have enough time to recover for the climb. Although the guy that stuck with me was right, his teammate did take the the win. Now if only I had some teammates...

At the end of the day I was able to pull away a ninth place and top under 23 rider in s4. I was hoping for a bit better that ninth, but thats racing. Sometimes you need to take the risks and this time it didn't work for me. I had already changed back into normal clothes when my coach Jeff told me id get a medal for coming second in the KOM points total. I had to run back to my car, put on my sweaty HCC bike kit on and run back to make it back to the podium. At least I was able to leave the day with a medal!

Things that I took from this race. I definitely like how I was able to pick where I wanted to be in peloton today and not be at the mercy of it. I feel as though I gained some more respect from some of the riders so hopefully I wont get needlessly taken out like I was in springbank again. As always I gained more race experience which is something I definitely need at this point! From here I have a few weeks of 'rest' before KW classic!

Just incase your curious, heres links to results page and my garmin page!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/180204831
http://www.ontariocycling.org/web_pages/results/20120520-214442-ncresults.htm

A little bit about me...

I grew up riding bikes in Brantford, ON. One day my buddy Zach thought it would be a good idea to try the Paris to Ancaster. Prior to that we had only biked 30km on our furthest rides and thought we might as well get our money's worth and do the full 60km race. Neither of us had any idea of what we had got ourselves into, but we made it to the end! Ever since that first race I have been trying to push myself to go faster and further.

I started to get more serious into racing last year when I tried my luck in the OCUP mtb circuit. Now if you know Brantford you know there is not much good singletrack to train on. That put my technical skills at a disadvantage and despite my best efforts I was only able to place midpack in senior sport.

This year I decided to switch to road racing to see where it takes me. So far I am doing much better than last year so it looks like the road is here to stay! (of course I will still find time to mtb because its so much fun!).

Also this year I started receiving coaching from Jeff Kehler which has been amazing! He is a great guy and is always there to help me out for a race or questions for training. I've seen a lot of improvement already in the 2 months I have been with him and there will be many more to come!

I am also racing for the Hamilton Cycling Club this year. Its a great club and holds some pretty sweet time trials and hill climbs weekly! I encourage people to come out to them to build up the competition! (you don't need to be part of the club to participate)