O.Cup#1 was a great race with eight team members competing. Jeff, Rich, Ryan and Erin were competing for the first time in the expert class (up from Sport class last year). Jeff, complained of having a cold, but blasted past some very good expert riders on the last lap to take 3rd in the expert 30-39 category. Jeff attributed this to Shania tunes from Alan Lo (Cyclefit) on his MP3 player (not EPO) and watching American Flyers the night before.

Below are the team results and reports:
30-39 Sport Male - 16 Hung LeHong, 23 Craig Kaufman, 24 Daryl Wood
50-54 Sport Male - 4 Greg Andre−Barrett
19-29 Expert Female - 4 Erin Atkinson
30-39 Expert Male - 3 Jeff Shikaze, 9 Ryan Trant, 14 Richard Poulin

Jeff Shikaze-
As my first race as an expert, I didn't really know what to expect.  I was hoping for a top 10 finish if all went well but was feeling a bit sick the last few days.  I decided to hammer with the top riders for the first lap just to see what happened.  Four riders dropped me at the end of the climb up the middle on lap one.  I didn't really care cause I was very happy to be fifth.  The cheering and excellent water feeds from the the rest of the team was awesome.  Laps 2 and 3 I settle down a bit after going a bit too hard on lap 1.  I think I started lap four in 6th or so.  I kept seeing Ryan about a minute or less back and was being chased down by one of Havy's (Sue Trimble's Husband) riders so I started to hammer the last lap.  Since there were not very many hills I didn't have to worry about cramping too much but I think I ran the last lap over 95% HR.  I exceeded my theoretical max!  I passed 2 or 3 riders in my group in the last 2-3 km and by some miracle stole a place on the podium by 2 sec.  I am still in a daze about that.  The new Giant Anthem 1 was awesome.  There's no way I could have did as well on my old hardtail.  Thanks so much to the rest of the team for all the support in the race.  We've got a great team.  Congrats to everyone.  The whole team did awesome and I got a lot of compliments on the new jerseys.  I think they all know who Cyclepath Oakville Race Team is now !!!
-Jeff.

Rich Poulin-
My first O-Cup race in the Expert category, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I did know the race would be faster / longer than what I was used to in Sport Class. My goals were simple, ride hard, have fun, save some gas for the 4th lap (an unknown variable for me) and don't finish last.
    The first lap when well, the start was fast as expected, but as soon as we hit the single-track the field sorted itself out pretty quickly. My second lap was a total gong show !! I missed my bottle feed (totally my fault I closed my had too early and ended up punching the bottle out of my wife's hand) then had a mechanical when my rear brake locked up, it probably only cost me 1min, but was really annoying. Tracy ended up finding me about 1/2 way through my 2nd lap and discreetly tossed me a bottle that was like a lifeline at the time. Lap 3 was a blast and I felt pretty strong, pushing hard on the hills. I was surprised at how well I felt for lap 4 which was unchartered territory for me. Overall I was pretty happy with my race, and achieved my goals, and even ended up finishing 14th. Thinking back I could have gone a bit harder early in the race but was holding back because I wasn't sure how much damage lap 4 would do to me.
    Here's a few observations I have about the Master Expert category vs. Sport - outside of a faster, longer race, the field is much smaller, the riders have much more etiquette when passing / being passed, and generally everyone on the course in the afternoon was a really good bike handler, you can follow closer through technical sections and not have to worry as much about someone crashing over something stupid right in front of you. All of these things added up to a far less stressful race.
    My future race goals will be modified to ride hard, have fun, save some gas for the 4th lap, crack the top 10 !!! Peace Out,
-Rich

Greg Andre-Barrett-
I was pleased with my 4th place in sport 50-54 men until I learned that I was only 11 seconds off 3rd … the difference being a few more hill climbs and sprints with Jeff and others at Kelso on Wed nights and avoiding a spectacular somersault crash on my first lap while trying to pass someone through some sandy woop-dee-doos. Best thing was the home town cheering fans in the feed zone! Second best was the race as it had just the right mix of everything. Third best (well maybe best) was Jeff getting third and everyone doing really well in the first O.Cup mountain bike race, and for Jeff, Rich, Ryan, and Erin their first expert level race.

Cyclepath Oakville Race Team is powered by legs, lungs and heart and the following fine sponsors:
AIM Trimark - www.aimtrimark.com, Bike Lab - www.bikelab.ca, Cyclefit - www.cyclepath.ca/html/spinning.htm, Cyclepath Oakville - www.cyclepath.ca, Luxaire - www.luxaire.com, Oakville Cycling Club - oakvillecc.com, Netinstinct - www.netinstinct.com, Patheon – www.patheon.com, Physiomed Health - www.physiomedhealth.com, SIDI - www.sidi.com, Dainese - www.dainese.com, Descente - www.descente.net