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.