I was a little hesitant at first to do this, as I said I was
going to avoid mass start events, but Ryan Roth did it last year so I knew it
had to be good. And it didn't disappoint! At first I just signed up knowing it was in the KW region, but
then it turns out it was closer than I thought! I normally ride a lot of the
roads it was on, so it was good for me. The weather was perfect, and I wanted a
good confidence booster to go into the off season with to fuel my training for
the winter.
I figured a break away would go, so I tried to be apart of
them. The race started and Mike Novo went right away. Everyone let him go for a
while and then after a couple km’s a group of strong riders went across. I
didn’t want to miss out on it so I went with them. We were off the from for
maybe 2km then everyone sat up as the pack got close. I decided to keep going.
They let me have my gap and I continued on solo for a few more km’s. The pack
caught me just before the turn onto Greenfield. I stayed near the front until
we got over the train tracks, then I drifted back to get better recovery in the
peloton. At this point Rivers attacked (listed as Bozek on the results), and
the group made a half-assed effort to get him. I thought they were going to
pull him in so I didn’t try to go across. Firek noticed this was sticking and
jumped across. Unfortunately I didn’t see who went across, and I tried to ask
people and no one I asked knew so I figured it was a nobody and it wasn’t an
issue. (It definitely was)
The group stayed together, not really working well together
for the next 20ish km. With about 40km to go (on Oxford road, right out of
Drumbo) a group of about 5 strong riders got off the front with Niles, Larbi,
Peter Morse and Patrick Kings. I was stuck a little too far back to make this after
having tried to go with a few earlier attacks. At this point no one wanted to
work, the people that did, just wanted to bridge across. When we turned onto
Bridge St. there was 3 or 4 of us in a rotation at the front trying to reel
them in (Tony Morelli and Mike Little were taking consistent turns). We did
this until the hill after the bridge and we got frustrated and sat in.
We made the turn onto Huron Rd and Shane Lavell attacked. I
knew he had a good engine so I jumped across. I was hoping he would come with
me but he sat up when I caught up and I just continued on. Right after that,
someone with a BMC jersey bridged up and brought the pack with him. He nicely
said “Nice try”, after his previous attacks, I knew he wanted to break loose.
In my head I thought, “there is no try, just do,” so I countered my own attack
and they let me go. I was able to open up a solid gap and I could see the group
up the road.
I kept chasing hard, and I saw the chase group ditch a
rider, Tim Burton. I worked a bit harder trying to get up to him, because an
extra person would mean a little bit of rest. After a couple km’s I made my way
up to him but unfortunately he slowed the pace slightly. During this time Ryan
Aitcheson and Aaron Hamill bridged across. This helped drive the pace and Tim
dropped. Aaron was too tired to take many pulls and I started trying to match
Ryan with pull time. All my solo efforts got to me though and I started to
fade. He did a great job over the next 10km to get us super close to the break
(it was mostly him, I did maybe 20% of the pulling). I thought we had them as
they were maybe 50m up the road. My legs were screaming and we turned onto
Whistle Bare Rd (2.5km to go). That’s when the group of 4 started to hammer and
fight for 3rd. Aaron and Ryan sat up, and I TT’ed hoping the 4
riders would ease up waiting for someone to take the front. Unfortunately I
never made it and finished a couple seconds back from them.
 |
| Sweet bottle opener medal I will need to open up my Hoegaarden beers during my week off. |
 |
| Why do I always look like I hate every second on the bike? This was coming into the finish so I was pretty sore. |
I finished 7th overall and 2nd in my
age group. My best finish all year so I was happy with it. I was 1:25 back on
the winner but was able to put 1:40 onto the pack in the finishing 25kms. I was
hoping for overall podium but I think I raced my best I have and I was happy
with where my fitness is. My confidence is boosted and I am ready for next
year!
Now I am taking my regen week, so no biking for the next
week (asides from my two spin classes, a man needs his money to survive). This
was my last race with the CoachChris.ca/Ted Velikonja team as well. I was happy
to end it on a good note with them and it has been a great couple years with
them, and with my coach Jeff Kehler. I am working on doing something different
next year but it is still in the works! I will update when it is figured out.
As always, thanks for checking in and following my race
season! Hopefully the stories start to be filled with more glory and less blood
and cracked bones.
Results: here
Garmin data: here
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