I feel old fashioned. It happens at UVic all the time, but it seems the youngens with their fancy technology are everywhere. How can I compete with GPS, HR monitor plots, and now you-tube videos posted minutes after the event? See the earlier Caleb Pike thread for a link to the video.
Report (sorry, only text): About 15 riders in B including one young man out on his first race – I felt like warning him, but didn’t want to spoil it. His parents seemed very proud and mentioned to the organizers that he was a competitive type. Easy to forget that while this is only the Victoria Cycling League, it’s pretty darn fast (like the TS morning rides – friendly but fast). The A race had fewer, but there did appear to be some celebrities in that group. Look at the pictures and you’ll see a recent Tour de France stage winner (very recent) even showed up (and won). Different kit, but no mistaking that finish line signature.
The Easter bunnies were represented by Roland, Gavin, Peter and I. Joe rode out too, but didn’t race. Something about 250 km on Sunday. A slow start was followed by a steady pace. A few deer watching from the side lines and a dog crossed our path, but nothing too scary this evening. Roads were dry, which was a nice surprise as it was raining when I left home.
On about lap 5 we all saw Roland at the finish line with his back wheel off. A staple had given him a puncture. That left three. Things went well for most of the race. We stayed near the front and dealt with the few break-away attempts that were made. Then, on the last lap, I made a big tactical error. Gavin jumped from about third spot and it was a great jump. When I should have slowed the group (I was leading at the time), I tried to follow Gavin. It could have been worse, in that I didn’t drag the entire field up the road. Only two of us managed to bridge. But, the consequence of this silly attempt to ride Gavin’s wheel was that he slowed a little to help and I burned out. Why should Wednesday evening be any different from Tuesday morning you ask? I have no answer.
We certainly worried the entire field. That counts for something, no? I guess not. By the bottom of the steep hill a stretched out field of about 10 riders started to go by and neither Gavin nor I had the legs to chase them up to the finish.
The silver lining to this dark cloud of a story: Peter has shed his fear of hills. It’s gone. Vanished. The man rode (and talked) near the front for the entire race, positioned himself well on the final lap, and then sprinted up the hill for a fifth place finish. And he was smiling all the way. Beautiful.
New guy was lapped, but not until very late in the race. I hope we see him again.
JT
Caleb Pike Race Report
Moderator: mfarnham
I thought we had a great race as a team. I was always aware of where the other Tripleshotters were and it seemed that other than a few random moments I was always riding behind / beside at least one other teammate. Very cool.
We also had a chance to play some tactics as when a TS move happened we would try to block (with varying degrees of success. I think if we had talked about a few possible scenarios in advance we would have had much better luck tactically.
All in all it was a great race (for me, not our videographer). And now I am half way to catching Bill E. on points! Whoo Hooo! Of course he has a broken PELVIS and I am still 9 points down but Hey! I am closing!
We also had a chance to play some tactics as when a TS move happened we would try to block (with varying degrees of success. I think if we had talked about a few possible scenarios in advance we would have had much better luck tactically.
All in all it was a great race (for me, not our videographer). And now I am half way to catching Bill E. on points! Whoo Hooo! Of course he has a broken PELVIS and I am still 9 points down but Hey! I am closing!