The Post Weekend Breakdown

Just chillin' on a post-training session espresso and thought I would drop the word on this past weekend's racing action.

Saturday-
Tour de Lyn in Brockville. Pretty much the same deal as last year; 9.6km loop ten times, big cross- and cross head winds and a small 1/2 field. Present from the Cyclelogik crew was Andrew Kruger, Brooke Boocock, Osmand Bakker and myself. We kinda figured that it would roll out easy but someone started driving it right from the gun. That was a little nasty. The plan was to cover off any moves in the early part of the race and then try to start launching some attacks, but the move I covered 5km in happened to get an immediate gap, and since all three major teams in the race were represented, we quickly built up a comfortable advantage. I was accompanied by Nick Rowe (Espoir Laval) and Dave Vukets (gearsracing.com). We worked quite well together, although I could tell that the other two were labouring a bit as a soft pedalled through my turns on the front. I was starting to contemplate how to play out the end game when the pack got motivated and started to reel us back in. With 2-1/2 laps to go the gap was down to 20 seconds from over a minute and my breakaway campanions were fading fast, so in order to maintain the Cyclelogik advantage I laid down a hard attack into the headwind sections and I was off on my own. Twenty five kilometers from the finish is not always the best place to attack, but in this case it meant that my teammates still did not have to do any work in the bunch and if I did get caught they would be super-fresh and ready to counterattack. Anyway, turns out I was feeling strong and I managed to ride it all the way to the line with a very secure margin. Brooke took the sprint for second over Bruce Krip (Midweek Elite) and Osmond brought it in for 6th. Andrew had a rough day, but hung tight and won the sprint in his group.

Sunday-
Aztech GP crit, Kingston. Super windy, small field. Obviously I didn't feel like going out on the early move today, so we agreed that would be up to Oz. He succeeded in getting away after 20 or 30 minutes in a six man group with all the teams represented. Nice, because then all Brooke and I had to was sit on and cover any dangerous looking moves. Once again, the gap went up fast and the group was well over a minute up the road. Somehow Brooke found himself off the front, and I sensed a general lethargy about the group, attacked to join Brooke and we went straight into 2-up TT mode, with Nick Rowe (Espoirs) along for the ride. We hovered at around 10 or 15 seconds over the group for a couple of laps while various combinations of riders tried to get across but nothing worked and all of a sudden we were really away. Nick couldn't really pull cause he had two guys up the raod to our one, but he flatted like four times and eventually got pulled. Brooke and I rode really hard to get up to the break, where by this time Oz had heard about us trying the bridge and was just sitting in. By the time we made the junction, we had all lapped the remnants of the field and were naturally feeling pretty blown. Half an hour to go and everyone is looking to us to make the race, because we had the numerical advantage. We tried a number of things to get the race going again but it was clear that no one was going to let any of us get more than a few meters on the bunch so with 2+ laps to go I went to the front to set up the sprint for Oz. In the end it went OK, with Oz making 3rd in the sprint and Brooke 6th, but I think that we all would have been happier with the win. At least we learned some more about team tactics today.

Next stop, Owasco Stage Race this weekend in NY state. We will be well represented with Oz, Brooke, Andrew and myself in the 1/2 field.

Thanks,
GR

New season, new team

Alright, apparently I've dropped off the planet since the end of Jan. Sorry. Plenty of things been brewing, here it is in short form:

1) I won 2 provincial championships on the mountain bike in September
2) I raced in Europe and saw the light (covered in the earlier portions of this blog)
3) I converted to the road

So, for anyone wondering why I'm not on a mountain bike this year, it's fairly simple- I felt that it was time for me to move on to a discipline that will challenge me more and allow me greater career opportunities. Hey, there are worse things than retiring form the mtb circuit after a stellar season!

So far, so good. I spent the entire month of February getting fat (sooo nice), then I had to rack up the kilometers in March and April (sooo hard). I am now close to something resembling race weight, and my legs have started to come around again. The race program has been pretty light so far, but the events in which I have participated have gone very well.

Life is good, the weather is getting better, and I have found new beginnings here in Ottawa this year. To keep y'all informed, I am no longer a member of the Gearsracing.com squad after having been part of that outfit for the past four years. I have moved on the the Cyclelogik Racing team based out of Ottawa. There is a really awesome support network surrounding the Cyclelogik team and I am honoured to be a part of it. The team has performed very well in the few times that we have raced together so far this year, and I am sure that we will continue to improve as a team over the course of the season.

That's pretty much it for now, but just in case you were wondering, here's a quick rundown of what I'm using in terms of equipment this season-

Opus Tocatta carbon/aluminum frame w/ Dura Ace 10spd.
Cervelo P3-SL w/ Dura Ace 10spd.
Wheels by Mavic
Tires by Michelin
Pedals by Time
Helmet by Bell
Clothing by Louis Garneau
Legs by me

Thanks for taking the time,
stay tuned for more frequent updates.
GR