This weekend consisted of two races in the
Kitchener-Waterloo region. The first was the Kitchener Twilight Grand Prix on
Friday night and the second was the Tour de Waterloo on Sunday.
The Grand Prix was a criterium in downtown Kitchener, with a
nice loop around city hall. The course consisted of a flat start/finish area
with lots of fencing to keep the many spectators at a safe distance, a left
turn into a short hill, then the back stretch was flat and slightly downhill
into a very fast corner, and the last section coming into the finish was short
enough that you could almost get away without needing to pedal if you carried
enough speed through the corner. I
decided to use my Zipp wheels for this over my eastons that have power, because
the Zipps were stiffer which was good for accelerating through the
corners. Just in case you are wondering
why the garmin file had no power data if you look at it.
Here is an in-race video of the beginner race, so you can
see what the course was like: here
Early in the race a group of 13 riders, including all the
race favourites lapped the field while I was sitting pretty in the back of the
pack again… After being separated a few times because of people losing contact,
then chasing back on myself, I moved up a bit. Once the riders lapped the field
and rejoined, the pace picked up to ensure that the no one else could lap the
field and get back onto the lead lap.
After a few laps of this the pack split and I unfortunately was in the
back half of the split. We were able to keep the pace high enough to not get
lapped by the first group, but we never saw them again. With about 3 laps to go
I attacked from the pack. I dug the deepest I had all season, opened up a nice
gap and managed to finish the race solo. One more lap and they would most
likely have caught me. It did feel pretty awesome to attack and have the crowd cheering
you on, even being far back it still felt like I was racing for something.
I finished this race 22nd out of 38 finishers. I
think 20 people DNF’d so I should be pretty happy to have finished. The results
said I DNF as well but that was only due to a number plate issue, so I had to
reregister.
Sunday was the Tour de Waterloo, a nice ‘133km’ course that
was just one big loop, which was a nice change from having to do numerous laps
of one course. It was a mass start event
and I got to the start line a little late. I started a bit further back than I
would have liked. Shortly after the neutral start, a strong group of about 10
riders took off the front of the pack including Mackinnon, Roth and Bird. This
race I wanted to be part of the action, so shortly after, I attacked hoping
someone would follow and we could bridge across. I spent about 5mins in between
the two groups before a group caught up with me including two Jet Fuel riders,
Merritt and Aitcheson. I thought for sure this would hold, but I am guessing
Real Deal wasn’t happy with not being in it, and we got pulled in. I tried to
follow numerous attacks, all of them getting pulled in. Finally one went, and I
wasn’t able to go with it, and it turned out to be the one that stuck. A small
group tried to bridge across to this group but they got pulled back into the
peloton. I started to look around and noticed there were still some strong Real
Deal and Wheels of Bloor riders with us. I was hoping that they wanted to get
up the road but I am sure they were just happy to sit in, knowing they had
teammates up the road. Towards the end there was a few attacks, but none stuck.
I knew we were getting near to the finish and I looked at my garmin and it said
131km. I figured I still had time to move up. I looked up the road and noticed
the blue barriers that lined the start/finish area. Turns out time had run out.
Didn’t quite get a 133km course after all! People were pushing for spots
because some people were still fighting for age group podiums and the women
were fighting for overall podium as well. Knowing over 20 people were up the
road already, I decided to just stay where I was and not get hurt trying to get
a position that wouldn’t mean much.
Overall I was a bit disappointed with the result, but I was
happy to start to feel competitive at the longer distance races. It has taken
me a while to transition from cat3 to cat2 racing, but I think I am finally
there!
Pictures can be found at: http://www.ivanrupes.com/
Results:
Kitchener Twilight Grand Prix: here
(pdf download only from here)
Tour de Waterloo 133km: here
Garmin data:
Kitchener: here
Waterloo: here
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