Crit madness and misc.

This is a pic of me a the Canada Cup in Canmore. Wicked race! My favourite course of the year. It will definitely rank as one of my fav's ever! Basically it was one big climb followed by one BEEEEAUTIFUL downhill. Stellar. I got 26th which I'm pretty okay with considering I crashed into a tree with my face (among other things). I know this race is old news but I've been behind on my blogging and I couldn't let this one go without a mention.

In the more recent history, Le Tour de Bowness was the big event this weekend. Fabulous Race. Great course, almost as technical as the Canmore Canada Cup! I almost turned full roadie. Nawwwwh. Not even close, but events like this sure make racing skinny tires fun. I bombed the hill climb barely breaking the 4 minute mark (I mean barely). I'm just no good when there's no one to chase. My time was good enough for a distant seventh. The crit was when the fun really started. I am still in Cat. 3 for road so I don't get to race with the big boys like I do at the Tuesday night weekly crits. So I feel that I have the fitness and legs to win a Cat. 3 race at least every once in a while but sprinting is not my thing so a win has eluded me so far. The other factor is that I can't sustain the big Watts required to ride away from the pack solo (without a climb). For this race my biggest asset was a half-decent ability to corner. The race turned out to be quite tame. I tried pushing the pace a bit here and there to thin the group so I'd shed some of the people who can only ride their bikes in a straight line and then use my cornering ability along with someone like Dave Larson who knows how to ride a bike and create a break. I probably should have pushed the pace a bit more but I didn't and eventually slunk back into the group where we would inevitably end in a sprint. Been there, done that in Alberta. I blame no one but myself and a couple others that I know are strong enough to shatter 90% of the Cat. 3 race. As it turned out, I took a prime and on the final lap I wanted to attack on corner #2 into the headwind, over the hill, through the corners and hold on for dear life on the final straightaway. Well, in real life, on corner #2 I got boxed in and on corner #3 and #5 was getting my wheels knocked all over the place so for the last corner I was near parked as I started my sprint. My mediocre sprinting was good enough for 5th and the last spot on the podium. Props to Rob Leeds (who's sprinting is not mediocre) for the win. We should haved shelled him at the half way point! Hee hee. oh well. It was fun.

That wasn't the only crit. Tonight I just finished the Tuesday night crit. It was a relatively windy day with very few people out. Eleven people started and I think only 6 or 7 finished. There was nowhere to hide. Once we dropped some of the riders it was like we were in a breakaway but it was the whole race. I attempted an attack with some help from Dan Wood (ERTC) but it didn't stick and tried again later to be counter attacked but I bridged back up. Eventually, It became evident that it would be a sprint finish. Looking at the field I knew that I wouldn't win it in a short flat race. I needed to gamble. One the tight corner #2 I pinned it as hard as I could and when I checked through my arms I saw I had a really good gap and my legs weren't screaming at me yet. Things looked good until I looked ahead and realized that I'm too far on the inside to make corner #3 at this speed. It was going to be dicey! I tried hard but as I reached the apex of my arc I could see the curb coming fast, very fast. I could try and hold on and risk a very dangerous crash (right before Transrockies) or I could admit defeat and bunny hop the curb. I admitted defeat and hopped the curb and skidded to a stop as I shoulder check a lightpost! Crap. I think I could have taken this one if I had held my head up. Live and learn.
The race was hard and fun. Just the way I like it.