Armstrong Hill - Sunday March 13th

[RyanC]

Well, I would love to say I did my flashy new team kit proud but sadly that is not the case. Same kit is now a uniform shade of gray. What a day. Forecast called for 15-20mm of rain and that's what it seemed we got all in the first hour of the race. Cold and driving rain was the order of the day. Seemed liked everywhere I wasn't climbing I was fighting for a wheel in a hurricane headwind.

Here's the post-mortem: 11 laps of the 7.2k circuit; 11 times up Armstrong hill, each one faster than the previous. We had some soon-to-be-if-not-already cat 2 up the road by lap 3. He had 2 minutes on the rest of the field by lap 8, where I got popped off the back trying to close a 2 meter gap into a headwind on a false flat. It was like sprinting in slow motion.

I didn't go over with any expectations other than to endure a pure suffer fest and finish with the main group, so the day was really a qualified success! No accidents and no tears. All in all a good day. Dylan was great company and I think he's got a bright cycling future ahead. Right about now I am sure he's more concerned with picking dirt out of his eye sockets. I will let him share his experience with you.

Ryan

[Josh.E]

Sounds like a character building day.
Seems like the pace was significantly harder than the race last week on the flats. Nothing like a hill to get people going hard and not waiting for a bunch finish, hey?

[RyanC]

One other interesting thing is that after about 15' of the carwash we all were suddenly able to speak Flemish - weird but totally appropriate!

Belgium/BC in the spring: I could not have said it better, Peter!

R

[Dylan J C]

So the race from my perspective...

The race started with a little chaos as usual. On climb 3 of the day I noticed that i was at the back of the group with everyone who was previously behind me having already been dropped, so remembering the words of Peter and Lister I made a move up the outside to the front of the group.

At the top of the hill is where it all went wrong. As it leveled out into the false flat we were hit with a cross head wind which hit me like a brick wall and without any protection I dropped back close to the back where I could get into a bunch and find protection. Just a little further up the road the group split right in the middle and I found myself "sprinting in slow motion" to try and close the gap, and because of my move on the hill I was not able to catch the front group, just drop the people behind me.

I then rode solo for 60k without support, passing only the people who were dropped from the front group, the the back group chasing for the next 6 laps until they were no longer to be seen.

[Barry McKee]

Congrats guys. Given the conditions it sounds like everyone who challenged that course was a winner.