Spring Series Mar 25+26th

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DuncanBryson
Posts:7
Joined:Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:56 am
Your Ride:Tactic
Favourite Ride Style:Road
Spring Series Mar 25+26th

Post by DuncanBryson » Tue Mar 28, 2017 4:16 pm

Saturday started off nicely with the Thunderbird road race. A little bit of sun made a huge difference in how enjoyable the racing was. Nick, Jackson, and I were racing with the Cat 4s and looking for upgrade points. An 11 lap race of a 6k course made this a pretty short but scrappy race. The three of us launched several attacks hoping to get off the front and take the sprint out of the equation. Unfortunately, one or two riders were able to tag on to each move and disrupt our efforts to form a paceline. The lack of cooperation was a good sign that the field would be fairly gassed for the sprint, so we settled into the last two laps feeling confident. The finish was a slight uphill after a short climb. I grabbed onto Nick's wheel before the last corner and we manoeuvred our way towards the front few wheels for the final push. I was initially planning on following Nick's leadout to the line but spotted a gap in the field with 100m to go and made a move. Nick and I made a comfortable gap on the field in the sprint, with a first for Nick and second for me, allowing us both to upgrade to cat 3. Jackson grabbed some points in the bunch netting 8th.
With Jackson still racing cat 4 and Nick going home I was left to take on the Aldergrove Classic solo in the Cat 3s. Nine laps of 10km with a very punchy finishing climb and large amount of rain made for a very dynamic race. Without teammates, and feeling fatigued from three weekends of consecutive racing, I decided to race conservatively. The race was fairly uneventful until a break formed with four laps to go. After letting the slack go for a lap a chase formed and reeled in the breakaway at the finishing climb with just over two laps to go. A last ditch effort by the breakaway riders to attack on the climb as they were being caught stretched the field, and I began to feel the fatigue of the last few weeks. Some small efforts were made on the second last lap, but none stuck. The bunch resigned themselves to a sprint finish, and settled in to a steady pace for the bell lap. With no juice left for the sprint on the final climb I coasted into 11th. Back at it again next weekend with fresh legs and Nick's big engine!

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