Maple Bay Master's Race

[barton bourassa]

!st Master's Race of the year for me. These are my kind of races! Leaving in 10 year age groups, oldest first. 11 or 12 of us in my group. Marcus and Joe in the 50's. Marcus joins me next year in the 60's! The thing I like about these races is not having to rip around tight corners at 4o or 45k/hr with 20 or 25 other folks! Now that scares the %#*$ out of me! This was just great!

It was a beautiful day, no rain, not too warm, but a good wind from the west. Right from the start some the more experienced master's racers tried to get us into a rotating pace line. It was pretty clear their goal was to try to stay ahead of the 50 year old's coming up behind us. It sort of worked. One thing became clear pretty quickly. When the rotation was quick on the front, 10 or 15 seconds, we flew!! Often during the first two laps (4 in total) our leaders hollered for folks to peel off. In the 3rd and 4th laps they just went by. It actually was the best I have seen a group of individuals race and work so well together.

I managed to hang on until the very end of the last lap with the the traditional uphill finish. I was done by then! Average pace was 35.6 K/Hr with an average HR of 155. The quickest I have ever ridden at or anywhere near that distance.

I had three goals; stay upright, stay with the lead group, and stay ahead of the 50's. Well, that first goal was actually from my dear wife! Goal 1 and 2 accomplished! Lionel of Schoxs (spelling? what used to be IRC) went flying by with 400 or 500 metres to go.

This was a lot of fun. A really good opportunity to really push and see what the brain and body can do when they work together! I would really encourage you to come on out to the next one, June 8, Shawnigan Lake Rd. Good times!

Barton.