Elliot Lake 2008

Three members of the team, myself, Jon and Isaac treked up north to the Elliot Lake Stage Race this weekend to contest the provincial hill climb tt (3.5km), a very technical downtown criterium and the provincial road race championships (148km).

The hill climb started early Saturday morning and was a good shock to the system to start the weekend. The team placed well in this first event to gain valuable GC points with Jon riding fastest up the climb in 7min 17s (4th U23), myself placing third in the senior category with a 7min 21s effort and Isaac getting a PB on the climb with a 7min 50s clocking.

The torrential thunder storm that unfolded before the start of the criterium, and consequently delayed the start of our race, was good foreshadowing for how the race would turn out on sat afternoon . The race started in the calm after the storm sort of conditions with a light drizzle coming down under grey skies but the technical course was still very much soaked. I made sure to grab a spot on the line so I could quickly make my way to the front to hold position to avoid the crashes that were to follow. Almost every lap we came through the back chicane we had people waving us down to avoid yet another crash. The race worked out where Jon was able to make his way up in the leading chase group to hunt down the leading soloist, Matt Bell, and grab 4th place. I finished with what was left of the peleton and placed 18th in the crit.

The road race went at noon the next day on sunday under much nicer, sunnier conditions, however there was still a considerable head wind coming out of the north on the north-south out and back course. Isaac helped initiate what was surprisingly to be the winning breakaway that formed on the second lap. Jon and I battled it out in the peleton where the pace constantly oscillated between a pedestrain 20km/hr to countering the persistent attacks up the back climbs. Jon eventually stuck it out with the leaders of the peleton to bridge up to Isaac's breakaway group to finish a strong 5th in each of the respective categories (U23 & RME.1). I didnt fair so well at the end of the road race and bonked really hard on the final lap and came home in 9th for the senior men cat.

At the end of the day the team did very respectable, even though we only had three guys, with Jon placing 5th, myself 12th and Isaac scoring 18th on the GC board.

Peterborough Douro Race Weekend

After a tough weekend of racing with some pros in Rochester, I figured that the Peterborough 107km race this past weekend would be a joke... well, it wasn't. The race started slowly which allowed the field to warm up a bit and get some words in. Then, a break went up the road with some good riders, but no Aquila Racing riders. I didn't really panic, as I was constantly reading the pack to see if they were motivated to chase or whether they were racing for 50th place. Not only that, but there were riders in my field that are strong, experienced, and wanted a victory. Sure enough I got into a chase group along with Justin, that made it clear of the peloton and was on its way to catch the leaders. Next thing I knew, Isaac had bridged up to us with another rider. Then out of nowhere, Mike joined us with another rider. We now had all our guys in the chase en route to catching and becoming the leaders. Sure enough, we caught them and with only a few kilometers to go, it was like a chess game; nobody wanted to work and guys were attacking. Three top riders managed to get away from us and so the race was on for fourth. We all finished quite well. I finished 11th, while Justin came 14th all same time. Isaac had done his job earlier in the race and sacrificed himself, yet still finished in the peloton, as well as Mike.
The day after the road race there was a 40km Time Trial. I was feeling a bit burnt out, but still in a positive race mode. I raced the Eddy Merckx style which is simply a time trial with no aero equipment...just a road bike. I chose that category because my TT bike was disassembled from swapping components, but it's also a good way to simulate breaking away on your own on a road bike in a road race or criterium. The TT had lots of rolling hills and a stiff headwind/tailwind. Well, I won the time trial with a time of 57:40 which was faster than some riders did with full TT equipment. Mike came in 5th in the Eddy Merckx, and Isaac finished 11th in the regular TT.