Christopher Rowley: Steaming Nostril 2015

The race this year took on a slightly different route, with mainly a change in the start and finish. The dreaded rail trail section was removed for an all-road opening. The last 15km had a cool spring classics feel to it going into farm lanes and a little bit of rail trail. It finished off with a climb of 69 steps and a little crisscrossing through a park. The race went all right as a fitness test, but I couldn’t help but be incredibly angry with myself with the result…

So like all mass start events, I always say but never do, show up to the start line early to be near the front. During the neutral start I didn’t fix my mistake and kept the same position in the pack. I was too far back and watched the group split ahead of me as I worked hard to move up the field as it was ripping apart. Would be much easier to do this when the pace is lower. I kept the lead group in sight but I wasn’t able to bridge.

A group behind me started working together and they caught up to me. I joined in to take a break for a bit. This lasted a few km’s before there was a crash at around 25km into the race. I was able to brake hard then unclip and jump off my bike. Might have tweaked my ankle a bit but otherwise didn’t do much damage to myself. There was someone else was on the ground in pain, hopefully they aren’t too bad. I looked up the road to see that the group carried on without a second thought to the fallen soldiers.

I chased hard for the next 30mins, periodically picking someone up that had fallen off the group and then dropping them and continuing on. I finally made it back on just in time for some insane crosswinds. It was hard to get a draft and my legs were already feeling fatigued from the chasing and extra work I did (that could have been prevented with proper placing at race start!). A few guys broke off the front of our group and I didn’t have the motivation to chase them.

Things were starting to get fun again towards the end with the mixed terrain. Then we got to a farm section with less that ideal path conditions. Being fatigued and not thinking properly, I saw that the other side of the path looked smoother and more packed down. I forgot that I was in a rut and when I went to cross over I went down hard, right into a puddle. Luckily I was hot from anger and racing, otherwise I would have been very cold in my now soaked jacket and pants. From here I lost all remaining motivation to push hard and just rode safely through the rest of the farm section and rail trail. I found a bit more drive when I hit the stairs just because there were spectators.

I finished off 32^nd, and got 3^rd in the 20-29 age group category. Not terrible with the two crashes I suppose and the extra chasing I had to do. Terrible though for what I had hoped to accomplish and from what I thought to be totally preventable circumstances. Oh well, live and learn! I get to retest my fitness this week at the Good Friday road race. If I find some pictures from the race I will be sure to post them! Thanks for reading J