Schwalbe Classic Masters RR

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Eugenehahn
Posts:31
Joined:Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:11 pm
Your Ride:Specialized
Favourite Ride Style:Road
Schwalbe Classic Masters RR

Post by Eugenehahn » Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:29 am

This race is held on the grueling course that rolls through Metchosin with nary a flat piece of pavement on the loop. The 10 km circuit has two main climbs and rolls in between, creating a difficult monster that always produces a worthy winner. The Masters race is combined with the Cat3 / Cat 4 creating a field of 75 riders at the gun...which they shot 5 minutes early as a couple of us were still rolling down Rocky to start. Thankfully the commisaires let us in join so I didn't lose the race in the warm up. So three wheelers (myself, Garth and Stephane) would contest this most difficult of BC Premier Series events. I had a bit of work to do right away, moving up thought the field into the top 15 as fast as I could, where I would try to stay for the race. My strategy overall for this race is stay forward on the downhill and push the pace through the technical corners leading into Liberty, where I can hopefully fade slowly back as the hillbillies show their stuff. It worked well for the first 5 laps as I rarely felt to far out of my depth and stayed right up front. Lap 6 is where the main attack happened and I think I inadvertently set myself up to get dropped. I pushed hard through the technical section, trying to close on an earlier attack on the Rocky climb from TS rider Eloi, keeping the power high onto Liberty. Sadly, as my momentum began to fade BSC Parker launched his biggest attack of the day and rode clear with ProCity Amac and TS Nick. They quickly joined with Eloi and the four rode off together. I gave it everything to close but just didn't have it. To make matter worse no one else felt like chasing except Nick Monette's buddy Sam. So he and I chased pretty hard for a half lap with a little help from one TaG rider, but we lost ground continuously to a motivated breakaway. I gave up the chase and faded back to chat with Stephane about the break. We moved back to the front and threw in some turns, but the chase was pretty disorganized and I don't think we did much damage. Last lap and the pace went back on as we set our fastest lap with the 20 or so remaining riders. Last trip up Liberty was painful and we kept rolling fast though to Rocky Point. Lots of pace up in the last 3 km had us closing on the break really fast, but they would be safe as Eloi pulled out the win with Parker 2nd. I patiently waited for the sprint to start from our group, timing my effort pretty well to get clear for a solid 5th on the day, with BSC Brandon the only guy close. Garth had a super ride as well, never looking in trouble and finishing first 50 plus rider and a few spots behind me. Pretty good day for the blue crew.
Cheers
E

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