Oakville Race Team, Report #4

Hi all. Middle of May and the season is heating up even when the weather
isn't.

The members of the Oakville Race Team are starting to find their form at
the right point of the season. Some teams do their best to hit the start of
the racing season in March & April red hot and proceed from there. While
everyone wants to do well at all times throughout the racing season, the
fact is that unless you possess superior natural talent, you simply can't
stay at your best level all year.

Most of the racers on our team approach the racing season with a structured
plan. One that builds endurance and aerobic systems throughout the cooler
months and into early spring and gradually layer and build intensity into
our training to reach our best at a point "later" in the season, when most
of our goals are. With that in mind, I would look forward to continually
improving results from the team overall as we move closer to the heart of
the season in June, July & into August.

I have a few races to tell you all about, but first - Happy to announce the
new O.R.T. uniforms arrived late last month direct from Italy and look
fantastic! Our team pictures have just been completed and all of you
wonderful sponsors & supporters will be very pleased with our image. The
team is wild about the clothing too!

On May 7th Francois was in Quebec and raced at the GP Granby which is quite
a prestigious Time Trial near Montreal. Several national level pro's &
Canadian National team members taking the start too.

The ever humble Francois considered this a training race and then proceeds
to WIN his Vet B division!! His time was good enough for a 14th overall
against the other 165 racers including all of the other senior men, espoirs
& pro's. Francois, I understand you have a trophy with your name on it,
waiting in Quebec for your return… Nice win!

On Sunday the 15th was MTB O-cup #2 at Albion Hills. Both Jeff Ferguson &
Dave Campbell were at the start line.

Here's Jeff:

"I placed 16th out of 42 in Ocup#2 at Albion Hills on Sunday. Lead the pack
for the first half of the first lap, and then a few guys caught me. It
started raining halfway through the race and the course got slicker. Half
way through the second lap I went down hard as I turned onto a slick wooden
bridge. It took a couple minutes of walking it off before I recovered enough
and got back on the bike and finished the remainder of the race. Meanwhile a
dozen guys had passed. Ah well... next race.."

I saw Jeff's knee at our team photo shoot last night. It was impressive to
finish as well as he did from the looks of it.

And Dave:

"Yesterday was Ontario-Cup #2 for mountain biking at Albion Hills. I was
reluctant to do the race due to the fact that last Thursday was my first
time on my mountain bike since Feb 2004. Furthermore, because I switched to
Senior III road this year, the OCA (Ontario Cycling Assoc.) decided that I
had to race Senior MTB as well instead of Masters - ouch!!

My race started at 10:30am and there were 65 riders at the start line in my
category. Right off the start the front two rows of riders exploded out of
the gate and I thought "man, these guys are going to crash", and sure enough
there was a spectacular collision just 10 meters out of the gate.
Fortunately I saw it coming and kept as left as possible and just avoided
the initial collision. However, out of the crash site flew a bike about 10'
into the air and then started cart-wheeling along side me at 30km/hr - quite
impressively too I might add!!. I was as far left as possible with my left
bar-end bouncing off the fence posts and this bike just got closer on every
loop until one of the wheels caught me in the leg but fortunately just did a
bit of damage to my new shorts. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Senior
racing!! At least the craziness is consistent in both road and mtb!!

I was about 20th into the singletrack and from there on my goal was to just
keep the bike upright. (Because of the rain the night before the course was
like pure grease for the last half). Even though my mountain biking is still
kind of rusty I managed to avoid going down (although there were lots of
close calls!) and bit by bit I managed to pick off the guys in front of me.
By the end I had worked myself up to 6th place and finished at 1:22, approx
2 minutes off the winning time. All in all, a blast from the get-go and a
great change from the road-race scene.

Cheers"

Thanks Dave.

The road climbers will be heading down to the Niagara region this weekend
for the Niagara Classic (including the multiple climbs of the cruel and
infamous Effingham hill). It's a two day stage race this year, with the big
climbing road race on Sunday and a downtown criterium in Hamilton on holiday
Monday. It's a good chance to come out see some good racing and cheer the
boys on either day.

Chris.


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