Tour de Bloom - Cat 3 edition

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Jackson
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Joined:Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:08 am
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Tour de Bloom - Cat 3 edition

Post by Jackson » Mon May 08, 2017 6:25 pm

I was a lonely Wheeler in the Cat 3 races this past weekend, though I found a few friendly Victoria faces in Gordon Tulip and Mike Dawson to share in the suffering.

Stage 1 - Road race. It didn't take long for riders to start attacking to try and develop a break, which really just served to heat up the pace of the field early. With >80km to go it seemed a little ambitious to jump in a breakaway so early, so I just stayed towards the front of the field and helped make sure that nothing really got away. After almost 30 minutes of racing the lead car slowed up and neutralized the race for the next 10' (rumored to have been issues with traffic control crossing the highway) which essentially reset the race. Following the "re"-neutral roll-out, everyone and their dog was getting antsy and trying (unsuccessfully) to make a breakaway stick on the long downhill. Once we hit the bottom of the loop and there were a few more corners and hills to be taken advantage of I hit the front to try and get in a breakaway or reel in any bigger groups that got away. Gordon seemed to have the same idea and, with a handful of other riders, we essentially controlled any breakaways (3 or fewer riders didn't have much of a chance to hold off the whole field) and tried to start our own breakaways a few times. Around 70k into the race it was apparent a long attack wasn't going to stick, and I noticed a lot of fresh new faces surfacing at the front of the field. I promptly drifted back in the pack to try and recover from the earlier sustained effort to get ready for the finale. Just as I started to make my way back up the field an official was calling out "1k to go" about 4k too early according to my computer. Unfortunately I hadn't had enough time to work my way out of a box before the first attack went and I was left weaving and chasing to get up the road, eventually rolling across the line in 20th position.

Stage 2 - Hill climb. Honestly, not much more to say. It started fast, and just kept going up rather unrelentingly. I felt okay for the first 5-6' of the climb and then really felt the effects of the fast start and suffered to the end. Knowing that I had expended all I had, but far from the most efficient manner, I was a little disappointed finishing in 15th.

Stage 3 - Crit. Going into this I thought the wind was going to be a huge factor on the short uphill. It took about 5 laps of the course to find the right lines to take and I started to feel pretty comfortable avoiding the wind and any pinch points in the flow. I found myself floating off the front a few times and spent a few laps out with a limited number of riders, making sure the race would be hard for everyone. There was a lot of sketchy behaviour on prem laps that I thought it best to generally avoid (history tells me a crash costs more than 50$). On the last lap I got myself into a good position to move up and contend after the last corner, but found myself getting squeezed out and feathering the breaks to avoid more bodily harm this season. I regrouped and sprinted but missed the front of the action, slotting in at 12th.

Stage 4 - Wind? Not as much wind as I've heard there was in previous years, but it was a significant factor. Knowing there were two laps (of 55km) and the wind would likely prevent riders from wanting to work too hard too early, I planned to sit in for the first lap to conserve the energy and animate the race in the second half. I learned this after doing too much work early on in stage 1 (see above). Correction: I thought I learned this. After a very slow opening 10-15km a group of 3 attacked across to a lone rider out front. I saw Ben Katerberg, a talented junior rider from BC, in the move and decided I should mark it. Ben and I organized an echelon of the break of 5 riders and quickly saw the gap grow to 30" within a few kilometers, but the other riders were already struggling to pull through the front of the rotation and tailing off the back when they were done. After a quick chat, Ben and I decided to go it alone. I remember a moment that I had been off the front for almost 10' and my gps was reading 25km. We traded short 1' pulls and kept the pace high, pulling out a gap of almost 3' by the time we finished the first lap. Then the decreasing time gap reports started to come, the fatigue started to set in, and I could swear the wind started to pick up. We made it to the unfortunately short tailwind section of the course where we were able to pull out a lot of time one lap ago, and the time gaps continued to fall. Back into the crosswinds my companion emptied the tank and drifted back to the pack after a few km. I went on alone, but at 90km into the race I looked back to see the looming shadow of my doomed breakaway attempt closing in. After a quick smile and an "I tried" shrug to the moto that was giving us our time gaps, I coasted back into the field. On limited energy resources by this point, I finally had to learn how to really conserve energy in a race while remaining in contention. I managed to stick around by the skin of my teeth and weave into the back end of the field sprint pulling off 10th for my first top 10 of the weekend. Still not what I was hoping for, but it was an effort and a hell of a lot of fun (with a good dose of suffering to boot).

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