Cyclepath Oakville Race team Weekend report

Welcome to June!! Let’s hope with the beginning of a new month, that
we’ve had it with the ever-present rain.

This past weekend the team was busy with 3 different events. On
Saturday, many of us took the opportunity the Oakville C.C. presents
us, by taking part in the Badenoch road race. As many of you know,
it’s a sweet circuit of gently rolling roads in farmland country,
just perfect for a race venue.

A nice turnout for the cool morning, but the sun and the pace warmed
us up in no time. No one went on their own today as a stiff
Northwest wind kept your nose very exposed on the two sections of the
course. One racer tried a move off the front, but really just
dangled like a carrot for the group, never gaining more than 15-20
seconds. I was faced with some technical issues on the 3rd lap,
during the prime sprint, I bent my saddle to what felt like an almost
vertical plane straight down, and unclipped just as I was approaching
the line. I never did catch Mr. Fisher…Too quick! The remaining
laps were a bit uncomfortable as I was unable to bang my seat back
into place, but it wasn’t far to the finish. The last lap was quick,
but quiet as everyone kept marking those we felt were the strongest
or most likely to bolt. Less than 1 km from the end, John Sandre
made a strong attempt to break free, and that strung everyone out,
struggling for the wheel in front of him. By the last corner,
everyone was back together with Ian leading the group. I had been
well positioned for the finish before John’s break attempt, but in
the accelerations that followed, I’d foolishly lost a few spots.
Around the corner, Ian just kept on going and to my surprise, no one
attempted to bring him back! I saw the gap he had and started to
sprint almost immediately after the corner, which is WAY TOO FAR
OUT. But, as he was walking away with the win, we had to try right?
As we were about 50 metres from the line - Ian had it won easily.
I sat up, both disbelieving what had just occurred and assuming I
was clear from my sprint. Francois nipped out of my wake to grab
second, with myself following in. That’s 2 big wins for Ian so far
this year. Both won from the front.

The team would like to thank Barry for his great race organisation.
Also Terry & Leon, thank you for your timing/ placing efforts and
Doug & Marva Taylor for marshalling and keeping us all safe.
Although absent from the race, Brad Nickorick donated all the granola
bars and juice at the finish along with that nice winners prize.
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Sunday was the High-Park road race in Toronto. A first year effort
to bring back this race from the past as part of Toronto’s bike-
week.
The Cyclepath Oakville Race Team was pleased to have been among those
granted entry into this limited-entry race. We were allocated (along
with the other invited teams) only 4 spots for the open race. I had
the task of choosing who would represent us. Filling the roster were
Dave Campbell, Francois Faust, Ian Fisher & Gary Scully. The course
was a tight, super technical loop in High Park. With a hill and
descent each lap. The race was 50 minutes plus 5 laps. True
criterium racing.

Ian sent me this later that night…
“The neutral lap was full of comments like "this is crazy"
and "verging on lunacy" and other doubts as to the sanity of the
organisers. The bunch positively exploded off the start line as it
was very obvious that the winning strategy would be to reach the top
of the hill at the front each time before the fast downhill that led
to a right turn onto a five foot wide path. Sixty riders into five
feet. You do the math. Once in the technical section, everyone was
well behaved (or too scared to do anything vaguely risky). So the
race became a series of crazy hill climbs followed by a downhill into
a technical section that was an absolute blast to ride alone or as
part of a very small group. I pushed up the first bunch of climbs at
my max. only just managing to hold on to the group. After that, I
lost about twenty seconds on each climb, making up some again on the
downhill and technical section. With laps only taking a few minutes,
they were pulling riders left, right and centre. I imagine about 40%
of riders were DNF including myself and Gary Scully. Dave settled in
between the front group of 24 riders and a chasing group of about ten
which included Francois Faust. Dave soloed about eight laps and
finished 25th by my count with Francois finishing in the chase group
in 29th. Brad would have done well on this course. Definately one for
the climbers even though the hill wasn't that steep (not a course for
the "fast on the flat" guys, O.K. Chris?).”

So I guess I made a wise decision not placing myself in the race as
one of the 4 huh? Yep.

Francois, then sent me this…
“I was actually petrified at the start so I did the first lap right
at the back. I was feeling ok though so I was able to make some
headway during the climbs. After a while though, the pack broke up
and I couldn’t have bridged so I just stayed with all my new buddies
until the end. I have to say that I’m happy I did it, as there were
indeed some very interesting/entertaining sections. It was a bit
nerve racking to be going 55km/hre down the road and then make a
sharp right turn onto the previously mentioned 5-foot wide bike path
only to have some guy take the corner on the inside, wow.”

Ok, now you guys are starting to remind me of downhillers! Maybe I
should have done this…
---------------------------------------

Saturday was the MTB Epic 8 hour. In the solo men’s division was
Greg (only a week after his 24hr solo).
“Perfect weather and trails made for fantastic 8 hours of racing. It
also made up for last weekend's wet 24hrs. The course was mostly fast
single track, some tough climbs, and a couple of of wicked downhills
that you basically locked your brakes and skied down! I did see one
racer being taken away on a stretcher with a neck brace! I broke my
seat (rail snapped) at the beginning of a lap (tiring riding 9k
without a seat) so I lost a lap in time while finding someone who
would loan me another seat and mount it. Because my back was still
hurting from last weekend's race I road less than my best pace but
still well enough to finish 11 laps and 99km placing 7 of 16 in the
Solo Men 40+ category. The top two in my category completed 12 laps,
so if i didn't have to replace my seat I would have done another lap
and placed 3rd!"

John & Jeff also raced as a Tag-team.

“We did pretty well, placing 7th out of 59 tag teams. It was a great
course with lots of tight twisty singletrack, sandy descents and
plenty of climbing. The first lap was intense as I battled it out
with a solo rider to bring in the fastest lap at 27 minutes. Our lap
times after that were in the 30's. We got in 14 laps of the 9km
course in the 8 hours.”

Nice races, all 3 of you.
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Till next time…

Chris
Cyclepath Oakville Race Team.








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