This blog is about the Nationals Road Race and Criterium.
Rain. That's an understatement.
After the ITT the skies unleashed. Friday was the day to do road race recon. We decided that doing a full 55km lap was too much if it was to rain the entire time. Instead we drove out to the bottom of beautiful Lac Mégantic and rode the hills back. The sky was dark, but not yet raining when we left the safety of the vans. It didn't take long to get a little rain, but we managed to stay relatively dry. This however was only the case for recon day, because race day was a whole different ball game.
After some strategic talking that night (very unusual for a mountain biker) it was time for bed. We knew we would be waking up to thunderstorms and maybe a teeny, weeny bit of rain...
Race day. Hummm sky dark, air damp, low ceiling - terrible day for flying - but I guess we could race bikes. As we lined up to race one might say, 'hey it might rain' or 'hey look at the wall of torrential downpour coming across the lake!'. Legitimately there was a wall of water.
Well as you may have guessed it began to rain. The setting of the race and my personal nervousness was heightened. I don't wish to crash on the road, I don't believe it would be enjoyable. Within the first couple minutes of the race the usual happened. Break away here, attempt there; nothing was sticking. The Ontario team was to send a rider up the road. There were some solid attempts but Quebec was having non of it. They were going to bring everything back. As for myself, well I couldn't move to the front without an entourage of other riders, I couldn't move to the back without people staring nervously over their shoulders at me - you could say that I was marked. Very interesting contrast between road and mountain in that regards. You can be marked on a mountain bike, but you'll probably just beat everyone to the single track first. Road, yea don't try to go up the road, they don't like that.
Sorry I got off track. The weather, now pouring, with the occasional lightning bolt(s) in the distance progressively becoming more frequent. You could say it was intense. On one of the descents Mother Nature decided to unleash some marble sized rain drops. My face, lips, arms, legs were numb but that wasn't the worst part. The scariest thing happened to my on that descent. I hit a section of the road that was covered in water, deep water, and hydroplaned. It was scary. I was slowly being sucked off the road but managed to regain contact with the pavement. I wasn't the only one to experience this as there was lots of screaming when we got to the bottom.
I had tons of wonderful one-sided conversations with people about the weather, how they were feeling etc etc. For some strange reason talking, or being able to talk, was throwing people off. The French riders would look at me like I was an alien because I was chatting. What? No one else likes to talk? I guess not
Unfortunately there was a crash, well there was a couple but this one stood out because I saw Adam Jamieson flip over the bars. Adam is a neighbour and a good friend of mine and I've seen him go over the bars many times on a mountain bike. It was unfortunate that he broke his frame and could not finish the race.
Nearing the end of the race the lead of the group consisted mainly of Quebec riders with some CHCH, Ontario, and one rider from Nova Scotia - who may I mention killed it! Awesome job dude. The strategies had been ditched, nothing had worked. It was Will Elliott, Jack Burke, Sean Mackinnon and myself left to defend Ontario. Sean slowly cracking, Jack consistently pulling and myself too marked to do anything, this one was for Will. With 25km to go Will would try to get away, but couldn't get it to stick. Even with his skillful tactics he needed someone else, but I couldn't do it. At 15km to go, right after Will had been caught again, I decided to take control. I jumped on the front and drilled it situating Will on my wheel. 42-46km/h was the poison forced onto everyone in the group. Sean would occasionally come up and give me some rest, but this was it, I was going to turn myself out and get Will to the finish. With about 2km to go it was hurting. No one had yet to counter my pace but on the final little riser before the descent into town I was overtaken. I wasn't yet ready to give up control so I brought Will and Jack to the other side of the road and paced them out. On the descent I was giving it. Oh man junior gears, just spinning so fast! With about 350m to go I was overtaken and boxed in. I couldn't get out to give Will a lead out, but somehow he was able to get out and got into the mix. The last turn, 200m before the finish, was gnarly. Off camber, two cross walks, two manhole covers - oh and it was raining! At this point I really didn't care because Will had made it into the mix and I was spent. Hitting the exit of the turn I stood to sprint and quickly found myself sideways. Remaining rubber side down I used my traction control to get myself safely across the line. 10th was earned on that rainy day. Will got 4th.
Thanks to the OCA and all the guys on team Ontario! Everyone did awesome!
The crit was that of a different nature. May I say in my favour as well as in our control?
Criteriums are something I am not familiar with. Well I guess that's not entirely true as they are sort of like cross races on the road. Anywho, Adam Jamieson and I decided it was our day. Starting off as a beautiful day, the road was dry (Thank You!) and the legs felt good. I started at the back and had to beat my way up to the front of the race. This took almost 8 laps until I felt comfortable. It was great shredding turns and going fast. Very rarely did I come out of my junior gears. Sean Mackinnon was up the road mid way through the race. Unfortunately Sean was being reeled in. As Sean was being caught Adam pulled up beside me and told me to go. I trust the Chief so I decided to do it. We got away effortlessly through the turns. This was at 18 laps to go...out of 36. We dangled. And dangled. Big shout out to the CHCH and Ontario boys that were chasing down people trying to bridge. There was one rider that got too close for comfort at 3 laps to go. He was sitting about 30 feet off my wheel and the pack was about 50 feet behind him. I may, or may not, have screamed at Adam to go faster. It was close! Last lap Adam was totally wrecked. Like Statefarm I decided to be a good neighbour and bring him in. Pulling the whole last lap and gaping Chief on the last turn we rolled in. Good times. Painful times.
Thank you Centurion Development Canada for their support, the OCA and the team. Fantastic experience and exposure to the road scene. It was fun!
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