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