Masters Maple Bay RR

[MDAWSON]

Roads stayed dry today in Maple Bay for the Masters road race, so we had great conditions for a really fun race. I have to say that course is fantastic, and one of the most fun I've done.

We set out at noon in groups split by age groups, with the 70+ going out first, followed 6min later by the 60-69, then 50-59 etc. etc. The 50-59 group was by far the biggest, and contained my one other TS teammate, Ritchie. He might be able to comment on how his race went, it was a large, fast group from what I understand with IRC well represented. I think Ritchie came 4th or 5th?

I was in the 30-39, setting out last, 4min behind the 40s. There were 6 of us on the start line, 3 guys from Duncan's Cycle Therapy. The pace started out very fast, and we quickly dropped one of the Cycle Therapy guys, and were down to 5. We worked well together in a paceline, and before we finished the first of four laps we were already catching various dropped 40s and 50s riders. Some stayed with us for a while, but most of these dropped riders we just passed in a blur.

With the first lap down, I had taken the measure of everyone in our group. It was pretty clear that the 2 remaining Cycle Therapy guys were very strong. I had been forewarned by the fact that these 2 guys had dropped Stephane towards the end of the hill climb the day before. It seemed like I was probably the next strongest. I went on the defensive and began sitting out some pulls, the pace had been very high up to this point and I was feeling it, and also very aware that we had had about 45km to go. When I started working less, the other 2 stopped pulling through as well. Now it was basically the 2 Cycle Therapy doing the bulk of the work, and rotating between them. Needless to say, this put an end to our well-functioning paceline. It was about half way through the race at this point, and the pace went from 'steady, high' to 'easier, with massive attacks/surges'. The Cycle Therapy guys took turns attacking, and I was left covering them all. We had several 40s in our group too, and these guys became fed up with the attacks and started to work in a nice paceline again, which kept the pace high while allowing some recovery. Our group was thoroughly dysfunctional by the 3rd lap again. Attacks were fast and furious, and guys were getting shelled from our group left and right (mostly 40s riders). I went off the front on two climbs just to demonstrate that I could attack as well, and even rode in a 2man breakaway for about 8km. I made a point to not work with the Cycle Therapy guys, and since they couldn't drop me, they were both extremely frustrated (we had a few choice words between us after the finish). Coming in to the final leg, we were a group of about 7, 4 30s and 3 40s. I jumped first in the final sprint, and was passed by both Cycle Therapy within 100m of the line. So I finished 3rd in that sprint, and 3rd in my age group. Our average speed was 38.1 for 65km.

Looking forward to the next one, and hopefully we'll have more Tripleshot representation!

[Stéphane Tran]

38.1 km/h for 65km! Good job on getting 3rd, there's no shame in that! Sounds like a fun, dynamic race with lots of back and forth. There are a few Masters races in Victoria coming up, so I would imagine we will get more TS participation in those.

[rhughes]

That is interesting Mike--our (my) average speed was also 38.1 in the 50's group so I guess I can feel pretty good about that.

My guess is that there were about 15 - 20 in this group (results aren't up yet) so I think we were the largest. A good 8 of them were IRC guys. they had a good race and worked well as a team--although I couldn't always tell what they were up to. There were always at least 3 of them in the more or less constant pace line we had at the front (where I spent too much of my time--again).

To keep it short I lead out way too much in the last 5km or so--it was costly, but still fun when you are choosing the line through a turn (or missing it--twice!) deciding how fast everyone is going and looking back and seeing a whole horde chasing you. But it was costly as the sprint I had nothing! I don't mind being beat in the sprint by the 6-8 guys who were also working but by the sit-on-your-wheel horde that felt a bit much. Lesson learned for me where i need to position myself more!

On the horde there were 3 or four times that i thought 3 or 4 of us had successfully broken away--but everytime they came back. I can only assume that we made them work a little harder than they wanted.

I sure felt alone when near the end there were 4 of us going (3 were IRCs)--when they all looked at me at the same time and body language from all was--what is he doing here?! Sure would benefit from more TSCers out there!

Ritchie

[barton bourassa]

June 9, Mill Bay. I'll be there, seeing how long I can hang on! The 50's ('ll be at the top of the age bracket!) are pretty darn fast!