Sun filled K-W Racing Weekend!

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 22^nd 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/

And: http://www.sportszonephotography.ca/Cycling-2014

Results:

Kitchener Twilight Grand Prix: here (pdf download only from here)

Tour de Waterloo 133km: here

Garmin data:

Kitchener: here

Waterloo: here

KW Classic - Lots of Rain!

This year brought a new course with rolling terrain, a nasty hill and lots of rain. The elevation map didn’t look so bad in the tech guide, but racing up that hill 12 times took its toll. According to Strava it was only 5% average over 800m. The majority of the rain that fell that day occurred during our race. I am starting to believe that the weather network and I have different ideas of what 1 mm of rain constitutes.

The first few laps were tough, and we were moving quickly. The pack stayed together for the most part. A bigger group got away on the third lap on the hill. This was started by an attack launched by Sean Mackinnon.  Around this time there was a big crash in the master 1 race that left a rider on the ground for a few laps and a few others that looked pretty scraped up.

About midway through the race I was starting to think I wasn’t going to make it through the race. My power on my rides this past week has been lower than normal and I was ready to blame it on being off my peak again. After the hill I found myself slightly off the back with Woody Marrouch and Anthony Sreblowski. Anthony and I took a couple hard pulls each and we got back on. After this I worked on moving up the pack, and finally decided staying at the back was a terrible idea.

Turns out a lot of people were feeling just as bad as I was because the peloton let up a bit on the hills for a few laps. It was still fast, but I was able to keep my heart rate from going over 180bpm. Rivers took this as an opportunity to attack on one of the final laps at the top of the climb and the group let him ride away. The winner Gaelen Merritt built up a huge gap for the win. I thought I remember seeing him talking to Anthony with 4 or 5 laps to go. He must have put himself in the pain cave to build up that massive gap in a short time.

There were no serious attacks coming through the last lap. And I made sure to keep a good position about fifth wheel back coming into the final kicker. The sprint started super early, before the kicker with at least 500m to go. It was too long to try and make up any ground. I did my best to fight through the pain and hold my position until the end.

I finished 17^th on the day, and 5^th in the group sprint. I had no idea that many people had made it up the road. I was hoping for top 15 to get my one upgrade point, but I felt really good about how I finished this race. Next up for me is the KW twilight crit and then Tour de Waterloo.

Watch how the race unfolded courtesy of Strava: here

Results: here

Garmin data:here
Some really sweet overhead footage of one of the races on the day (Courtesy of Tom at WCC): here 

Share the Road

With the recent killing of a cyclist near my house, there have been numerous comments on the local news sites and social media blaming one side or the other without details. Of course being a cyclist and spending enough hours every week riding these same roads for it to basically be a part-time job I feel compelled to speak up. I also drive to and from school/work everyday so I see both sides of the story. I will try and represent an unbiased argument as best I can here that will hopefully lead to more awareness on the roads for those that read it and think about it. Just know that for both sides there are good and very bad drivers and riders. I will tackle many points that people bring up. I am open-minded to this, so if you have any logical points or suggestions please let me hear them. I want you to look at both sides of the picture though for your argument first, so that people know you have actually thought it through.

First point - cyclists move too slowly on high-speed roads. So the primary thing to note here is that no cyclist actually wants to be riding on a busy road, we dislike cars as much as you dislike bikes, mainly for safety reasons. So don’t be shocked that when you take the back roads and are speeding to avoid the traffic on major routes to find cyclists. Secondly on this point, please let me know how you handle slow moving tractors, or school buses that stop every couple hundred meters. I haven’t seen a car try to run either of those off the road. The obvious answer is because you are smaller than both of those vehicles so you know you can’t win that battle. But a bike would just be a little scratch on your bumper so no harm to you right? Also on this point is the idea that cyclists ride two abreast, which will slow you down even more. The fact that it slows you down is good for the safety of the cyclist because then you have to wait until it is safe to pass. Sometimes cyclist lose their focus and ride down the middle of the road, and I’ll be damned if any driver can say they haven’t done that themselves on an empty country road. If you approach a group like that, a simple tap of the horn to let them know you are there will suffice. The cyclists will happily move over and let you by. Now if you meet them with rage you might get a different response. But that happens anytime you want someone to do something. If you go in yelling they will be less likely to do it than if you had politely asked.

Second point – cyclists don’t obey the rules of the road. Here I will take a neutral side. I know many riders that are on both sides of this argument. I agree with many drivers that some cyclists do things that are very dangerous, and if they get hit it is their fault entirely. Also the driver does not deserve to have that on their conscience for a cyclist’s ignorance. But remember, not all cyclists are like that. Say you saw a tattooed man on the news reported for killing (huge stereotype here), does that mean that every man with tattoos should be locked up because they are bound to commit a crime? Of course not! Same with cyclists, you don’t run one off the road because earlier you came across one that was riding in a way you didn’t like. The final argument I would like to make on this point is to please look at the way you drive. I can put a million dollars on the fact that you probably break the rules of the road each and every time you get behind the wheel, whether it be a rolling stop or speeding.

Third point - this is a continuation on the last point to do with a rolling stop. For cars it is more obvious because you have to slow down much more because you were travelling at a higher speed. I know some cyclists, and I have been guilty of this myself, have completely run a stop sign. I never do this however when other cars are around because I don’t want to put my life in excess danger. But just know when we slow down to approach a stop sign; we get to about the same speed that you do in your rolling stop. The last comment I want to make is that many drivers want to see a cyclist stop and put their foot down at the intersections. That would be the equivalent to you putting your car in ‘park’ every time you get to a stop sign or stop light. Sounds pretty ridiculous right?

The final point I want to make is that cyclists don’t pay for the roads. This is brought up all the time. You are completely right, we don’t. Let’s just say we did have to insure and register our bikes, the costs would be less for obvious reasons. Drivers still wouldn’t be happy because we don’t pay as much. I’d be all for registering our bikes if it would make the drivers happy but I don’t see it helping. Secondly, 200lbs of cyclist (with bike and everything else they might have on them) will do no damage to the roads. This is part of what cars have to pay for, the costs of repairing the roads due to driving very heavy vehicles on them all the time. This creates cracks and other road damage. Now the next logical argument is that, if cars weren’t around then nobody would be paying for the roads that you like to ride on. That is absolutely correct. I will counter this with the fact that every cyclist I know also owns a car, so don’t worry they are paying just as much as you are.   

In the past I have had firecrackers and water bottles thrown at me. I have had people yell and swear at me, and try to run me off the road. Some people will speed by me then pull over to the gravel shoulder and spin their tires to fill the air with dust. While none of these scenarios is ever warranted, I did absolutely nothing to deserve them. I was riding on the right side of the road, with no one coming in the opposite direction, so they had no issues with passing. If I did something wrong, I am willing to accept the consequences. I am not so inclined to accept this punishment for things I haven’t done. I risk my life every day because people feel safe in their steel box. How come no one has ever gotten out of it to fight me? Surely you could easily take on a 170lb cyclist. It’s because as soon as you get out of your car and face me, I become a person again, not just a cyclist. I am humanized, and humans do not like to hurt their own. When they do, it’s because they somehow justified it by saying the person is lower than them for whatever reason, and does not deserve their respect.

In conclusion, yes cyclists can be at fault and some really need to brush up on their road skills. Also many drivers need to learn some patience and pay attention to what you are doing. I don’t care how you look at it, if you did something that lead to the killing of someone on the street whether it is a pedestrian or cyclist that is murder. Just remember we are all people out there. We all have families; we all have a place to be at the end of the day.