Jim Horner Grand Prix

I decided to head up to Edmonton to do the next series of races as I was now pretty close to my Expert upgrade, so I figured I’d be able to do it by the end of the weekend.

Immediately upon us arriving to our hotel in Edmonton, I knew this weekend was going to be awesome. I drove to Edmonton with Thomas and there we met a whole bunch of other riders from Calgary. There at the hotel bar sat 10 of us: Keith, Shawna, Thomas and Charles from Speed Theory; Katie Curtis from Bowcycle; Craig F. from Calgary Cycle; Craig S. and I from Deadgoat along with independent riders Mani and Josh. It was great times, all of us laughing over beers and food even though we’d all be racing against each other the next day. To me this is what defines the racing community, the great times we all have on and off the bike.

The next day we rode down to the course from the hotel as it was only about 5 minutes away by bike. I dropped off my spare wheels, registered and went to do a proper warm-up as per Keith’s advice prior to doing my course pre-ride. This time I went into the race with a plan. I knew who I needed to stay with and what position I needed to hold on to in order to have a good race. I wanted to finish on the podium this weekend…all I needed was 5th place for an upgrade…but I wanted top 3.

The race course was one that was suited to me. Lots of short power climbs, 2 forced run-ups and it was fairly technical with some good flow as well.

The start of the race was probably one my best starts this season. I was sitting in the top 5 going into the first turn and pretty much right away 6 of us had a slight gap on the field. There was a really strong headwind along the power section so I knew I wanted to sit a few wheels back in the paceline to conserve energy. Going into second lap I moved up a few positions to sit on Chris from Pedalhead’s wheel, who was in the lead.

3rd lap in, I noticed Chris was starting to slow down trying to fight the headwind on the power section so I did a quick check to see our gap on the field and noticed the chase group was closing. Against my usual nature and probably a bit of surprise to many people, I decided to attack and push the pace a little bit. I was now leading the paceline and trying to fight the strong headwind but I figured I would only lead for a little bit and drop back a few spots on the next power section. We went through a technical turn and then I heard Chris drop an f-bomb behind me so I knew that he had slipped out and bailed. I attacked again to get a gap on the field as I knew he had gone down in tight section and was holding up the chase group. I was now by myself with the whole field trying to chase me down going into the next power section.

Every lap I could barely hear Craig yelling my time gap on the field while I ran up the run-ups and Keith yelling at me that I was getting away from the chase group, but I was just trying to push through all the pain in my legs and keep going as hard as I could. It was pretty crazy trying to focus on the race, it was my first time ever being in the lead and having a significant gap on the field. I was now focusing on riding the rest of the race clean and to keep going hard even though everything hurt. There was even a point where I almost ran into a lapped rider as I got tunnel vision trying to concentrate on my lines.
On my last lap as I neared the finish line, I knew I had it…in my last 100 meters I started thinking about my victory salute. There was a bump at the finish line so I didn’t want to do any crazy stuff and then bail so I decided to go conservative with the one arm fist pump as I crossed the finish line for my first ever win.

Result: 1st

After I crossed the finish line I remember asking Shawna “Did I win?”...hahaha...cyclocross can make you delirious. During the race when I was in front, I never once looked back and I don’t even remember looking at the lap counter…I just listened for the final lap bell. It seemed like all the work and all the challenges throughout the season had just paid off. Talk to most bike racers and they’ll tell you how rare winning a race is, so I have to admit it felt amazing to stand up on the top step of the podium for the first time. The best part of my race was all the support I got from my friends during and after my race and I think that’s what really made my race what it was. I also got my upgrade to the Expert category which was my top goal for this race season.

Handlebar camera video of the first lap: (I think it's from a Velocity rider...not sure who though). I'm the rider directly in front (527).