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