This season I've taken the mindset that if I finish on the podium or I finish 18th in a race, it isn't really going to impact my life. So don't sweat it so much. That isn't to say I won't give 110% every race. It just means I fit bike racing into my summer, rather than trying to fit summer into bike racing. And with that, here's a look back at my long weekend and the Tour de Bowness.
I had a Lauryn Hill poster on my wall in 1997. I still have that poster. Needless to say, I wasn't going to miss a chance to see Miss Hill live at the One Love Festival on Friday night. So after standing for 5 hours and eating random unhealthy foods from food trucks, I headed home for 5 hours of sleep before the Tour de Bowness Road Race. Perfect race prep.
The 88km race in Cochrane started out the way I thought it would - the largely intact peloton rolling to the 22km turnaround as a single unit. A couple kilometers later we started "the climb", the one feature of the course that punts riders out the back, regardless of race category. I was almost up and over with the pack but a few of us couldn't hold the wheel of the climbers. So it a full gas effort to tag back onto the peloton with a little help. I had no problem holding on through the next 43km. And recognizing the best Bicisport chance at a good finish was sitting out in the wind near the front, I moved up the left side to give Simon a quick draft then continued to the front of the group for a solid pull. That may have cooked the legs a little bit for the next time we hit "the climb". Starting the climb in about 5th spot, I saw most of the group go past me about halfway up. And suddenly I felt like I was riding a 40lb Canadian Tire special. Reaching the top as a group of three, we pacelined our way back to a group of four in front of us. And with the lead group not gaining much time and a determined group of seven, we were in with a shot of catching the lead group. And getting 3 Bici guys back up to help Simon could have been a great help. Unfortunately we couldn't get the group coordinated and the paceline kept falling apart. A kilometer or so from the finish we made the final turn down three guys. The lead pack was approaching the finish line now, so we created our own mini race for minor placings. I bounced around to control the pace and lead out Suchaet for the sprint win.You never know when that experience will come in handy. Final result, 2 minutes behind the lead group. And first cat 4 race in the books. I'll take it.
And now, time to recover. Jump in the car, drive up to Edmonton for a 40th birthday party (because I've been friends with Chad for almost twice as long as I've been crushing on Lauryn Hill), eat some more unhealthy food, drink some beer, get a few hours of sleep and drive back to Calgary.
Monday morning I rode over to Bowness as part of my warmup and got in a couple laps on the criterium course. This cat 4 crit felt faster than last year's cat 5 race from the jump, so my goal was to keep it rubber side down and finish on the same time "as the winner (in bike racing, there has to be a significant (i.e. 2 or 3 second) gap between racers to determine a different time. So a group can be strung out in a single line, but if there is no real split in that line everyone will finish on the "same time"). About 8 laps into our 30 lap race, I started to slip off the back, with the gap extending to about 10 meters. Enough to spell disaster for a solo rider. Engage time trial mode. Head down, pushing bigger power numbers than I should have been exerting at that point in the race, I managed to catch back on in 1.5 laps. Burnt a few matches, but that's the beauty of the peloton; active recovery while cruising along at 40km/h. And then came the first of two serious crashes. After the fast straight away, a rider went hard into the railings. People swerved, another rider went down in front of me, and my bike handling was put to the test as my brakes locked up and my back tire fish tailed while I avoided either of what looked like the only two options - bump into the barrier myself or run over a downed bike. Instead, I clipped back in and started the chase back up. The dangers of being at the back and caught behind a crash. Two of us were closing the peloton down a couple laps later when the race was neutralized until the crashed racer could be safely taken off the course (on a stretcher). With lactic acid building, we waited until our race restarted. Then go! The next 8 laps buzzed by, another racer unfortunately went down hard on the same corner, and before I knew it we were on 2 laps to go. I paid for my earlier efforts to catch back on and thus didn't have much to move up and contest the sprint. Final result was 14th. On the same time as the winner!
Post race recovery: margaritas, free mexican food, and watching the really fast guys and girls race. (And I have to shout out Dezz here for being the most supportive wife. She worked a night shift, got off at 7am, went to boxing class, came to watch my race, and hung out all day until 3pm before finally heading home to sleep). Probably my favourite day of racing on the race calendar. Come watch next year!
I had a Lauryn Hill poster on my wall in 1997. I still have that poster. Needless to say, I wasn't going to miss a chance to see Miss Hill live at the One Love Festival on Friday night. So after standing for 5 hours and eating random unhealthy foods from food trucks, I headed home for 5 hours of sleep before the Tour de Bowness Road Race. Perfect race prep.
The 88km race in Cochrane started out the way I thought it would - the largely intact peloton rolling to the 22km turnaround as a single unit. A couple kilometers later we started "the climb", the one feature of the course that punts riders out the back, regardless of race category. I was almost up and over with the pack but a few of us couldn't hold the wheel of the climbers. So it a full gas effort to tag back onto the peloton with a little help. I had no problem holding on through the next 43km. And recognizing the best Bicisport chance at a good finish was sitting out in the wind near the front, I moved up the left side to give Simon a quick draft then continued to the front of the group for a solid pull. That may have cooked the legs a little bit for the next time we hit "the climb". Starting the climb in about 5th spot, I saw most of the group go past me about halfway up. And suddenly I felt like I was riding a 40lb Canadian Tire special. Reaching the top as a group of three, we pacelined our way back to a group of four in front of us. And with the lead group not gaining much time and a determined group of seven, we were in with a shot of catching the lead group. And getting 3 Bici guys back up to help Simon could have been a great help. Unfortunately we couldn't get the group coordinated and the paceline kept falling apart. A kilometer or so from the finish we made the final turn down three guys. The lead pack was approaching the finish line now, so we created our own mini race for minor placings. I bounced around to control the pace and lead out Suchaet for the sprint win.You never know when that experience will come in handy. Final result, 2 minutes behind the lead group. And first cat 4 race in the books. I'll take it.
And now, time to recover. Jump in the car, drive up to Edmonton for a 40th birthday party (because I've been friends with Chad for almost twice as long as I've been crushing on Lauryn Hill), eat some more unhealthy food, drink some beer, get a few hours of sleep and drive back to Calgary.
Monday morning I rode over to Bowness as part of my warmup and got in a couple laps on the criterium course. This cat 4 crit felt faster than last year's cat 5 race from the jump, so my goal was to keep it rubber side down and finish on the same time "as the winner (in bike racing, there has to be a significant (i.e. 2 or 3 second) gap between racers to determine a different time. So a group can be strung out in a single line, but if there is no real split in that line everyone will finish on the "same time"). About 8 laps into our 30 lap race, I started to slip off the back, with the gap extending to about 10 meters. Enough to spell disaster for a solo rider. Engage time trial mode. Head down, pushing bigger power numbers than I should have been exerting at that point in the race, I managed to catch back on in 1.5 laps. Burnt a few matches, but that's the beauty of the peloton; active recovery while cruising along at 40km/h. And then came the first of two serious crashes. After the fast straight away, a rider went hard into the railings. People swerved, another rider went down in front of me, and my bike handling was put to the test as my brakes locked up and my back tire fish tailed while I avoided either of what looked like the only two options - bump into the barrier myself or run over a downed bike. Instead, I clipped back in and started the chase back up. The dangers of being at the back and caught behind a crash. Two of us were closing the peloton down a couple laps later when the race was neutralized until the crashed racer could be safely taken off the course (on a stretcher). With lactic acid building, we waited until our race restarted. Then go! The next 8 laps buzzed by, another racer unfortunately went down hard on the same corner, and before I knew it we were on 2 laps to go. I paid for my earlier efforts to catch back on and thus didn't have much to move up and contest the sprint. Final result was 14th. On the same time as the winner!
Post race recovery: margaritas, free mexican food, and watching the really fast guys and girls race. (And I have to shout out Dezz here for being the most supportive wife. She worked a night shift, got off at 7am, went to boxing class, came to watch my race, and hung out all day until 3pm before finally heading home to sleep). Probably my favourite day of racing on the race calendar. Come watch next year!
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