Cyclepath Oakville Race Team weekend report.

Only 1 race on the schedule this past weekend within range, so this
weeks report is on one race only. Jeff Ferguson competed in the
Canada Cup at Hardwood Hills (not Ontario cup, but CANADA cup).

He had another fantastic result as you'll see. Jeff is one of our
most talented and promising racers on the team as his consistency and
great results (at every level) attest. Here's his take...

"I raced in the Canada Cup at Hardwood Hills on Sunday. I placed 5th
out of 30 in Senior Expert. It was a crazy course technically, with
lots of narrow, twisty singletrack and plenty of roots, rocks and
drops. There were a few steep descents that had all of the above
mentioned features on which my shocks bottomed out. One of which was
aptly named "The Boneshaker", complete with an inflatable skeleton
hanging from a tree above it. Definitely a course to get the
adrenaline flowing... especially at an all out race pace. I did
manage to get through the course this year unscathed without any
wipeouts, although there were a few close-calls. An improvement on
last year's four collisions with trees (I sawed 2cm off my handlebars
last week in preparation).
I got passed by another rider at the beginning of my last lap, and so
I stuck to his wheel. He knew I was there and was determined to stay
ahead of me, so each time we came out of the singletrack onto a
stretch of doubletrack, he would sprint so as to not let me pass. I
just stuck on his wheel and drafted off him for those sections until
we re-entered the woods. Since he was going so hard, he wasn't able
to drink, but since I was drafting, I could. I started to notice
towards the end of the course he was wearing out and getting a little
sloppy in the technical sections, but still was determined to stay
ahead. My devious plan was working! I would wear him out and then
blow by him on the final stretch! So we were ripping down a bumpy
descent with 500m to go and we banked into a sandy left turn... but
he took it a tad too fast... his front wheel slid out and he bailed.
I just about went down too, as I bumped his wheel, but I got a foot
down and pushed off and kept going. I looked back and heard him
curse as he scrambled to get back on his bike. I continued bolting
to the finish and came in with a comfortable 15 second lead on him.
I was both glad and disappointed when I saw him go down, since I was
really hoping to contend with him in a sprint to the line. Ah
well... it still was an intense race right to the end.
Looking forward to OCup#4 at Calabogie in a month...

-Jeff"

Drafting? Waiting for the sprint??!! Man - makes me tingle just
thinking Jeff has a future on the road!! Somebody - get this man a
roadbike, Quick!!

Great race Jeff.

Enjoy the heat folks.

Chris
Cyclepath Oakville Race Team












Sign up today for your Free E-mail at: http://www.canoe.ca/CanoeMail