Speed Theory Speedfest Crit

Seems to be getting harder to write in any blog updates right now. It’s combination of more time spent training and I don’t really feel like it..so this will be a pretty short recap.

This was going to be my last road race of the season. As was going to do the Bow 80, I decided to just do the crit to try and get enough points to upgrade. The race was in downtown Calgary by Eau Claire Market and I’m sure getting the city to buy into this was no easy feat. The course was pancake flat with 2 long straightaways and shorter than any other crit course I had done. After walking the course during one of my lunch hours, I knew right away it would be a really fast race.

 After getting everything ready, watching the kids race and running a bunch of laps, I got to the start line…but apparently I got there a little too late and had to seed myself in the second row. Because of issues with light, we had our race reduced from 35min + 3 laps (roughly about 40 laps) to 20 laps….so it was going to be really fast.

The first lap started a little slower then as we had a pretty big group but it soon settled into a double file peloton. I was near the back on the first lap but it we were on closed roads with lots of room to move. As always whenever a gap was starting to open up I went around the packs to bridge up to the faster group.

With about ten laps remaining there was a group of two riders that had gone off the front and were about a half lap ahead of the rest of the group. With 7 laps remaining and a 20 second lead on us, Andrew launched the first attempt to bridge. No one followed him and I missed his attack so he ended coming back to the pack. 6 laps remaining and the MCs said there was a 9 second lead on the peloton. This is where I decided to do a suicide attack to try and reel the riders back in. I pulled out and went to the front of the pack and went off the front to see who would a follow. A couple riders got on my wheel to help me bridge but the rest of the peloton didn’t seem interested in helping us.

4 laps to go we managed to reel in the 2 riders that were off the front and we were a pretty big pack again. As we rounded into the final straight I tried to get myself in good position for the last sprint. Everyone started going right after corner 4 but I was trying to time it so I could pass the people that went too early. There were riders spread out all across the road and I wasn't able to sprint effectively past all the riders. I ended up finishing with the main pack but I knew right away I had not placed in the top 7 which is what I was aiming for in this race. I burned my last match at the front trying to bridge and just didn’t have enough for the final sprint.

Result: 12th

I finished up in a group off 22 riders so it was pretty much a toss up for my placing. I still had a really good race and was able to reel back in the two riders off the front who were almost guaranteed 1st and 2nd place. Andrew was able to time his sprint right for second which bumped him up to Cat 4 but I’m sure I’ll be able to get my remaining points next season.

*Photo credits to all the photgraphers who posted links up on the Speed Theory blog.

Alberta Road Provincials

I should really take a break.

I really wasn't going to do this race. I wanted to do the Speed Theory stage race to finish off my road season and then start resting up for the Bow 80 and 'cross. I said over and over…I wasn’t going to do road provincials…but I was so close to an upgrade to Cat 4.

I checked the weather forecast everyday…wishing for rain or bad weather to keep me from wanting to do this race…but alas, the forecast settled on being sunny in the mid-20s with no rain…probably the nicest day we’ve had all year so far. Also all the people I normally train with were helping out with the race so I figured this would be a good way to get a good training ride in.

The race was up and down Horse Creek road near Cochrane. I had pre-ridden the north half of the course last year and but had decided to skip the race in order to do the Speed Theory stage race the following week. The course is a fairly selective course with one feature that usually breaks the field apart…a 1km 6% average climb at the halfway mark.

The race started fairly neutral as we were pretty much downhill for the first 11km to the first turn around. At each turn around there was a fairly tight 180 that need to be negotiated…usually not an issue but with a pack trying to take the turn 3 wide…it made for some interesting turnarounds…pretty amazed there were no crashes…although more than a few people got pushed into the ditch.

After the turnaround, the pace stayed fairly neutral up the false flat with no major attacks or surges within the pack. Though there were only about 30 riders in the race it was still fairly hard to move up in the peloton as the pack pretty much took up the entire lane. My first chance came when we approach the first power climb. There was a slight gap developing in the pack so I made my move and bridged up to the lead pack. I wanted to be at the front of the peloton so that I wouldn’t get dropped on the descent on the big hill. As we neared the top of the hill, I moved to the very front of the peloton and went down the hill first. I knew couldn’t go down as fast as most people despite being in full tuck position and not using my brakes I cringed a little after seeing a few close calls with guys weaving back and forth across the road going 70+ km/h. At the bottom of the hill I was near the back of the pack again…but I wasn’t too worried about it.

We got to the north turnaround and in the distance I could see the hill we had just descended looming ahead like a giant wall. We got to the big climb and the pack broke apart almost instantly. I switched into my little ring and pretty spent the entire hill dodging riders scattered cross the road while just spinning to conserve energy. Surprisingly enough there more than a few moments where I had to soft pedal behind a rider to look for a way around and then stand up and keep hammering. I crested the hill and latched onto the back of about 15 riders. I checked behind me and could not see any other riders…so it looked like we had a split in the pack…it was time to hammer. I called out that we needed to form a pace line and take short pulls so we could drop the other riders. A couple riders heard me and rode up to the front of the pack to tell the other guys in the font to start taking short pulls. After not seeing any movement on the front, I rode up to the front of the paceline and did a quick pull and pulled off to get the paceline going, another rider pulled through and did the same…then the next rider pulled though and just sat there which effectively ended our attempt to have a smooth rotating fast pace line.

As we got down to the last 10km of the race, a bunch of riders flew by me and then I realized that the chase pack had caught us and we were a big group of about 20 riders again. They had worked together and caught back…which is something our group should have never let happen with 15 riders...but lesson learned.

After the south turn it looked like everyone was weary of being on the front as we went up the false flat. I did another turn on the front but as it seemed that the riders would not let me pull off. Even after I waved for the riders to pull though and I moved off to the side, the whole pack moved with me as I moved so I ended up having to slow the pace down so that I could get back in the draft again.

When we got to the final turn I was positioned in the front into the last 2km stretch. It was an uphill finish so I was trying to conserve energy so that I could sprint a little later than usual because of the hill. I ended up on the very front of the pack as we neared the hill but I didn’t want to go full out just yet and have other riders sit on my wheel. Suddenly the pack surged around me and I was at the back of about 15 riders. I let a gap develop a bit as I looked for a way around the pack while in my drops to start my sprint. All of a sudden I see a bike literally go backwards, the sound of metal on pavement and a riders head hit the pavement hard right in front of me…not again.

I knew no one was behind so I just managed to slam on my brakes, swing wide and barely missed hitting the rider as he rolled on the ground. I sprinted hard to catch up to the group and somehow managed to pass a bunch of riders going into the finish.

Result: 9th
I was fairly happy with how my race went. I still managed to finish in the points despite having to slow down during a sprint to avoid a crash and for the most part I felt really good the entire race.

My teammate managed to grab 4th in the sprint so it was a pretty good day for our team with two top 10 finishes.

Tour De Bowness

August long weekend had finally arrived. For most people this is a time for camping and to enjoy the last month or so of summer. For roadies in Alberta, it's time to throw down at the annual Tour De Bowness stage race. This is a great wekend racing event that is organized by Bow Cycle and the Niklas Group which includes a road race, hill climb time trial and criterium around the Bow Cycle shop.

A year ago I remember doing this race just to try out road racing and of course, participate in one the biggest cycling events of the year. Looking back on my first year of racing last year, I didn’t really know how to train properly for an event like this and I also didn’t really fully understand race tactics so things didn’t go as well as planned. Although I did fairly well in the hill climb, I really suffered in the road race and then I got lapped in the crit.

I trained most of July for this event and was pretty focused on doing better than last year. This was also going to be my first ABA road race since my crash in Pigeon Lake so I was a little nervous about getting back into a pack again...but I knew all the courses really well and had a much better idea of where attacks and surges would take place which really goes a long in keeping safe and having a good race.

Road Race:

The first event was the road race which took place on Saturday morning at the Bears Paw golf course just outside of Calgary. This course is a pretty difficult one as the distance is shorter than most road races which makes for a much faster race and it is really rolly with no real chance to rest. The plan was pretty simple for this one…stay in with the main pack on the big climb at the end of each lap. This is where I had lost the pack last year so I knew that all the surges and attacks would be here in order to break the field up.

My only issue with this course is the descent on the back side of the course which usually rubber bands at the bottom as people slow down to take the hard right turn. Every lap I was able to make up the places I lost on the descent, on the climb back up to the start/finish. I was able to stay in every time the pack surged on the hill and didn’t try to chase down every suicide breakaways. I did a couple short pulls at the front just to keep in with the lead group but for the most part positioned myself to conserve energy for the climb. Around the 5th or 6th lap we had dropped half the field but the lead pack kept pushing the pace. As we came around for the last lap the pace went up considerably. Around lap 7, there were only about 15 of us left in the main pack with a start group of around 50. On the last lap, we got to the hill and I went hard as I could to try and gap anyone that could be a threat on the final sprint. This time I grabbed onto a wheel as soon as I saw someone going faster and I knew where I wanted to start my sprint. As we neared the finish line, I sprinted hard for the finish line and was able to pass a few more people.

Result: 5th

After a lot of confusion over the results I got confirmation the next day I had placed 5th so I was now in the running for the Omnium.

Hill Climb:

The second event of the day was the hill climb which was the same course as last year. My goal this year was to try and beat my time from last year which was 4:33min.

The event was in the evening so it was a pretty long break between races. My heat was with 2 guys that I normally race with on Tuesday nights so I was hoping that would they would help me push myself for a better time this year. After spinning for a while on my trainer in the parking lot, chatting with friends and stripping all the unnecessary parts off my road bike, I went over to the start area to get weighed in and focus. After having some good laughs at the start line, it only took the 15 second countdown for us to settle down and focus. Right out of the gate I sprinted out hard in my drops to try and hit a good speed before the pain started. I knew my pain threshold was quite a bit higher than the previous year and due to some testing on a CompuTrainer I knew how long I could stay at certain thresholds.

I had a plan of where I wanted to be...but each person telling me to keep going hard, I kept pushing harder. At turn 3 I looked back and I couldn’t even see the other guys in my heat…so now I just had to keep pace through the constant pain in my legs. This time I remembered where the turns were but by turn 6, I could barely increase my speed anymore as my legs were just burning from the lactic acid buildup. As I closed in on the finish line, I had just enough resolve to stand up and just hammer for the finish line.

Result: 6th Time: 4:21 (12 seconds faster than last year).


Provincial Criterium:

Finally the big day had arrived, the infamous technical crit around the Bow Cycle shop. This was the event I was really training hard for as I got dropped last year 15 minutes in, lapped with 4 laps to go and got pulled out of the race. This year my goal was to try and finish with the main pack and stay in for the final sprint.

This year I ran a few laps on the course after warming up on my trainer to prevent me from having another bad start like at the Velocity crit. Also during the race staging, I managed to sneak my way right up to the front right on the start line. This year we didn’t get a neutral lap so as soon as the race started it was pretty much full-on gas. This year I was a little less nervous about my bike on the bumpy Bowness roads and had done way sketchier races on my road bike (Prairie-Roubaix race). Around the third lap there was crash involving my friends Trevor from Bici and Archie from Deadgoat. I caught a glimpse of Trevor going into the barrier out of the corner of my eye…which kind of unnerved me…but I tried not think about it and just kept hammering. With 10 laps to go, I decided to do a slight attack….not for a prime or anything…just to see if could get to the front and out of the pack of sketchy riders around me (and for a photo op). I felt really good this year with no cramps and my legs actually cooperating me with me on the back rise. When the last lap came around…it was fast. I went hard up the rise so I could have a good position on the chicane and then set myself up for the final sprint. As we came around the last corner, I could see the race leaders so I shifted and drafted another rider to set up my sprint. As soon as I close in to 200 meters, I ducked out and sprinted as hard as I could, passing a bunch of riders in the process. As I neared the finish line, I finally did a bike throw and I could count only four people who had crossed the line just a split second before me.

Result: 5th

After the race, I checked in with my teammate Archie who was OK but a little bruised and Trevor who had hit his hip pretty hard. Not too sure what happened during the race but it was unfortunate that they both had a pretty short race.

Omnium Result: 3rd 5th

Well after a long weekend of racing I placed on the podium for the road race, crit and omnium (overall points result). Originally, I was placed 3rd overall in the Omnium at the awards ceremony but that was later changed to 5th as some results were messed up and corrected the next day. Still it felt awesome to finally get on the podium and it was a pretty awesome weekend for me, having had a completely different race experience from the year before. My parents had missed the races but I was able to get them from the airport and back in time to watch me stand on the podium for the first time.

I’m really glad I was able to do what I wanted to do stage race and really improve on last year’s results. After having so many results being just shy of the top 8 and not having acquired a single upgrade point in almost 2 years of racing, it was pretty awesome to get 3 top 8 finishes in a row.

I didn't get to watch very many of the other races as I was running around doing errands and resting. I did watch the entire Cat 1/2 crit and it was awesome. It was a really exciting race with plenty of attacks, a huge breakaway and a surprise winner. I love watching the Cat 1/2 crit as you always see a ton of tactics being used and it's also a surprise who pulls it out for the win.

Many thanks to all the people who cheered me on during the race and all the people who came up to me after my race, it is always very much appreciated. Also a big thanks to Bow Cycle, the Niklas Group and all the volunteers for helping to put on this great event.

Photos credit: Brent Topilko

http://kayphoto.smugmug.com/event/tourdebowness2010

Crit: http://www.canadianexposures.com/gallery/johnrajic/201/0

Road Race: http://www.canadianexposures.com/gallery/johnrajic/203/0

Awards: http://www.canadianexposures.com/gallery/johnrajic/204/0