Velocity Stage Race: Day 2 – Stage 3 – Road Race

Today the race was going to be back in Fort Saskatchewan. It started a little bit later than usual so we got to get in some extra sleep. My legs felt OK but now I was trying to steer my focus away from my how my crit went the day before. I had to remind myself that it’s only the first race of the season and races don’t always go your way.

My category was set for 3 X 24KM laps on a mostly flat road which was good for the first road race of the season. It wasn’t really the distance that worried me this time around…but rather the huge number of riders in my category, many of which had no road racing experience. As I looked around, all the teams were bunched together, discussing some sort of strategy for the race. I was the only member of my team at the race so I just chatted with a few other lonely riders and listened in on a couple of other teams strategies.

Finally after standing around for about 20 minutes, we had a neutral rollout to the start/finish line. I was at the front and was in the right gear this time so managed to have a really good spot for the start of the race. As the lead car pulled off to indicate the race was on, right out of the gate there was an attack by the ERTC team then a Juventus junior tried bridge up. Because the race had just started we decided to let them go. A few kilometers into the race, we started to reel back in the ERTC/Juventus riders one by one. There was one significant attack by the a few Juventus guys but they would only stay away for a few kilometers and slowly get reeled in…the pack pretty much decided that we weren’t going to chase down anyone just yet.

As we entered into the second lap, I was still more or less at the front. I wouls drop back a few places every once in a while by would sooner or later find myself way up at the front again.The rest of the lap pretty much flowed the same as the last lap…lots of tempo changes and I was doing more work at the front then I probably should have been doing. On the straight before the last turn, I came pretty close to causing a crash. I was sitting on a guys wheel and his tempo was all over the place. To avoid running into his back wheel I had to swerve a few times which almost caused the riders behind me to run into my back wheel. Someone yelled my number…so I pulled through to try and find a better wheel to follow.

Third lap things started to heat up a little. An ERTC guy attacked just before…or even into the feed zone but no one followed. I was still near the front and getting really worried that I was started to burn myself out and would be tired to sprint. After we went around turn one, the guys from Juventus I had spent a good amount of time pulling with said he was tired of doing all the work and was going to slow the pace down. As we went over a slight rise…I could see why…off in the distance I could see 3 Juventus riders off in the distance ahead of the lone ERTC member. They had a made a break earlier on and their teammates was blocking. I was actually quite surprised to see some sort of strategy at work in a cat 5 race. A lot of people didn’t even know about the breakaway so no was willing to come up to the front and push the pace a little harder.

We got to the second last turn where I heard the screeching of metal and saw the pack split up. There was a crash at the front of the pack so everyone was swerving to avoid running over the fallen riders. I slammed on my brakes and veered off to the right as I was about to hit another rider. My only exit was a gravel ditch on the right side of the highway. I rode in the ditch and then alongside the highway for about 50 meters or so with the main pack to my left, then I did a quick bunny hop back onto the pavement and rejoined the pack. That was the first crash I had ever seen in a road race so I’m glad I was able to react and get back in the race. I got back to my position at the front and prepared for a pack sprint. About 4 kilometers away from the start finish I could see a Juventus rider up ahead so I decided to launch a solo attack so I wouldn’t be caught in a bunch sprint. I tagged Mark on the shoulder but he didn’t get my sign so I went out ahead of the pack by myself. I looked back an a couple riders had grabbed my wheel so my attack had been shut down. As we caught up to the Juventus rider…he looked totally spent. He was soft pedaling and could not go anymore…he had blown up while in the breakaway group.

We went around the last turn and it was onto the final stretch. The pace really picked up and things were starting to get a little sketch. I was fully conscious of the center line rule so was trying to keep my pace while avoiding following any wheels. I got stuck in the middle of the pack with no escape root so I just sprinted as hard as I could…I pushed hard but it seemed like I had burned my match when I tried my attack but as we got closer to the line people started blowing up so I had gained few positions. The sprint was really sketch with so many guys in the bunch but as I crossed the finish line I was sure I had placed in the top 20…so I was pretty happy about that.

Result: 10/51

A top 10 result to start of off the season really pushed my confidence up. I’m glad I was able to place this well because I was really wondering where all my training had gone after the previous days…but it seems I’m feeling a lot stronger in my races then last year. I stayed with the pack the entire way, mostly at the front and was in the pack sprint.