Bikes On Broadway 2012

Rolled down to Saskatoon with my buddy Shawn Ball to meet up with his parents & do the stage race.

Time Trial (8.20km ish):

I made 2 big errors in this time trial that placed me with a somewhat disappointing 7th place finish. The first mistake was taking out 3 or maybe 4 spacers in my front headset to make myself more aero. This was about a week prior to the race so I hadn't had any riding to help my body adapt to the new position. Also I didn't bring my trainer which was a fail because there was no place to warm up as the ITT started downtown Saskatoon. This resulted in my body not being warmed up enough for the short intense TT & the new positioning immediately caused glute cramping/hamstring cramping that I had to get to subside. Felt strong but couldn't get comfortable at all.

Road Race (96km):

The road race was controlled during the beginning lap by the 2nd place GC leaders teammates. Stephen Paiano was 2nd place GC & he is a beast on the bike. When he leans out more his power to weight ratio is going to be ridiculously dangerous. A few riders tried some surges about 10km in but nothing went clear. Mid way through the first lap 2 riders jumped & I went with them. One of them was a strong small punchy rider named Pedro & the other a Regina Junior. The Regina junior was gassed & Pedro was trying to recover so I pushed the pace sitting on the front trying to get us a gap. I knew that I would have to do majority of the work to make this break work but was fine with that. The pack wasn't comfortable letting us go as we were working reasonably well together so they reeled us in before the turn around. I was already at the front of the group at the turn around so I got up to speed & then put in a surge & was with two riders that wanted to go one of them being Pedro again I believe. Brett Person bridged to us & we had four riders trying to get away again. The pack brought us back within 1-2km & then the 1st place GC rider tried a counter attack but the peloton shut it down. Almost midway through the second lap my teammate Jack Vandyk got off the front with a few riders so I posted on the front to block/disrupt the chase. Just as we anticipated Pedalhead sent two riders to the front to reel in the breakaway. They spent 1-2km of effort on the front & reeled in the breakaway. I immediately launched a counter attack & heard Brett Person crushing the pedals behind me wanting to go. I eased up & we joined up to make a two man train. I kept pushing the pace & putting a lot of time on the front to increase our time gap before the turn around. We ended up with 30 seconds at the turn around & I was semi-believing we had a shot at staying away. I continued to push the pace to allow Brett to recover as he is normally a pack sprinter so this was way out of his comfort zone. What an animal to take the breakaway risk! We worked well together & the turn around beginning the 3rd lap we had 1 minute 20ish seconds on the peloton. I was somewhat relieved to see my teammate Jack on the front soft pedaling before the turn around so I knew they were being disrupted. We kept pushing the pace starting to fatigue but at the final turn around I was confident we could stay away. Brett was starting to fade so I kept shouting encouragement as I wasn't interested in putting any surges in & trying to go in solo. As we neared the line Brett told me to take the W & I thought that was more than fair based on the amount of work I did & our synergy together. We pounded fists for the gutsy effort & I rolled in for the uncontested victory.

Criterium:

The breakaway put Brett & I into 1st & 2nd in GC by over a minute or so. I only had the lead by 4 seconds which made things interesting as he is a stronger sprinter than me. I tried to control the pace during majority of the crit & spent a lot of time at the front. Dave Holmes went down early in the race on a sketchy corner as his tubular came off the rim. I didn't enjoy seeing him go down as I know the crit was a focus for him. I went for the first prem & was pretty sure I got it but the results showed that I didn't? Maybe a small glitch perhaps. I saw Stephen contesting it to try & jump up a spot in GC to 3rd place but I was quite concerned about Brett finishing with the win & moving to 1st in GC so had to go for it. This gave me 9 seconds (so i thought with the prem) lead on Brett which made me feel a bit better but was still worried. There were time bonuses for 1st place (15 seconds) 2nd place (10 seconds) & 3rd place (5 seconds) so I needed to take another prem & podium in the crit if Brett won or finish second place if he took the win. Trying to win the crit in the final lap sprint is something I don't enjoy at all & would much rather fancy my chances at getting off the front 3-4 laps before the finish. I also had ambitions of keeping Jack in the peloton & reducing the surges at the front to not risk him getting gapped. He was riding strong mid-late race so I was no longer worried. I continued to line out the group & then put in some perpetual attacks out of the corners. Some gaps were created & then shut down but I continued to attack off the front or 4th wheel back trying to have the group let me roll off. It didn't happen which was okay & the final lap came with the usual strong surge. Sketchiness is unfortunately part of the final lap & some Saskatchewan Junior chose a terrible line in the most narrow corner & took himself out along with Brett Person which I wasn't happy about. I was worried about his sprint but still wanted to leave it out to me trying to stay on his wheel at the end. Brett still ended up 2nd in GC as a rider who crashes in the final lap gets pack time which was great to see. I took the overall victory & got my upgrade points for Cat 1/2. Jack also held on to 6th overall which was an awesome end to the weekend of racing.

Now I don't need any more points & can just focus on putting my best effort into cat 1/2 races to potentially achieve my next lofty goal. The next goal is to try & obtain some solid results that could maybe put me on the radar for a Trek Red Truck team or a H & R Block team. This is a 1-2 year goal but I will try my hardest to make it possible for the beginning of next season.

Coming up for racing is the Pigeon Lake Provincial Race, Banff Bike Fest if my body is ready & then Nationals in Montreal with my buddy Patrick Paquette! My goal at Nationals is to see if I can climb with the main peloton & perhaps hang on until the end of the 180km race. I don't have any expectations & am mainly interested in seeing how fast these guys go up hills & where my power to weight ratio needs to be in the future.