O-Cup #5: Peterborough ITT

July 11, 2010 - Norwood, ON

It was an early start to get from Waterloo to Norwood but I somehow managed to down a 5:30 bowl of oatmeal and hit the road on time. As this was my first race on a proper TT bike (a beautiful Stevens Chrono!) I gave myself plenty of time to get it pre-checked. Whew, those plumb line skills I learned in undergrad have finally paid off--the set-up was legal. The bike check turned out to be a problem for a few of the racers, leading to mass confusion at the start, and delayed start times. Although I had a decent warm up, by the time I was called to the line, the legs took a while to get going again.


The course was a beautiful out and back, on nice pavement the whole way. It was mostly sheltered by trees, with just a little open spot around a lake to battle with the wind. There were long rollers for most of the course, with a net ascent to the turn around. I started out slow (in retrospect, too slow), and slowly ramped up the effort, trying to push pace up the hills and try to recovery slightly on the descents. The turnaround was on a slight false flat, without paved shoulders, but I felt confident railing it. Given my slowish start, I was really trying to hammer it on the return, and the rollers were starting to wear on me. Not really remembering what the finish looked like I saw a marshal at about 2 km to go, and pushed hard, thinking it was the finish. Whoops! Managed to gather myself and push to the end.

For my first 30km TT and my first time racing on a TT bike, my time tells the story of my lack of hard efforts in June but the Chrono feels super speedy and my focus was spot on. Can’t wait to rip up the local TT on the new bike, I believe there is a long standing course record that is begging to be broken.

-- Mel

Asleep at the wheel(s)

July 11 - Buckwallow MTB O-Cup #5
Another fun weekend on the mountain bike. As normal, I felt like a complete tool on the bike during pre-ride. I guess that is what happens when you don't ride your mountain bike on a regular basis. Fiddling with tire pressure, balancing on the bike, remembering to lift the front end up and over things--the small things. Always great to run into familiar faces and catch up. Two laps pre-ridden; time to relax and check out the local scene. We travelled on Friday night to catch up with Rob's mom and Vern for the weekend. After a nice dinner, took in some dock time watching the locals fish (no wait, that was Rob Kerr and his family!) plus a little spin around the go-cart race track at Santa's Village. How fun.

Lots of restless sleeping for me the past week. The heat must have been getting to me - strange dreams for a week.

Time to race. Smaller than normal fields for the start as the many of the top riders were out West for a Canada Cup and Nationals coming up July 17. Ten on the line I think. The two Sues were there - I lined up in betweent them. First time on the front of the start this year (I'm usually right off the back). Fast right off the start for a 5 mins flat road-like stretch to the first set of single track. Fell back one spot. Lots of roots (lots!), rocks and bumps and virtually no climbing makes for a rough ride. Fell back one more spot down a tres bumpy descent putting me in 5th where I would end up staying for the rest of the race. Into lap two I sort of forgot I was racing! Second and third lap snoozing at the wheel thinking of all sorts of things--other than bike races (might have contributed the shoulder-check I tried to give to a really solid tree - we both remained upright but the backpack on the shoulder commuting this week has been a tad uncomfortable). Made up for it all with a stellar forth lap. The effort just came a little too late. Oh well. Had fun anyway.

Rachel made the treck up to spectate (photo courtesy of one of her friends) and provided an awesome cheering section. Vern was a super star in the feedzone--and I put him to the test taking a bottle every lap (a first for me). Rob was first to Barnes in his race.

Usual convoy back to Ottawa. A few weeks to get ready for the next one. Best ride the mountain bike a bit :-) --Tricia K.

Nationals re-cap from Sarah

A bit delayed in posting, but here it is nonetheless...

From Sarah, Jun 30:

The course was a lot of fun and had something in it for every type of rider. It was 9 laps of 13km. There were three main climbs: one really steep pitch and the two other were longer grads. The course was pretty technical as most turns were U-turns, going straight back down the hill, so if you were at the back of the pack going up the hill you saw the leaders racing down the hill as you lined up to make the turn! The race started out pretty smooth with two people off the front for the first few laps. you could tell everyone was really nervous and twitchy, so once the pace started to pick up it got a lot safer and more relaxed. By the middle of the race Anne Samplonious and Erinne Willock and others were making attacks up all the hills trying to stretch out the race, but with the fast descents after the climbs it was able to all come back together.

The pace never really let up until the last climb when everyone was gearing up for the sprint - which was lead into by a long and twisty descent. I must have bumped off 5 or 6 people pretty aggressively just trying to to to the front. There were attacks coming from everywhere with everyone just trying to move up - but since we were already going so fast it was hard to keep a place. I managed to get on a wheel coming into the finish but the pack split with lead out people sitting up and others stitching lanes and so on. Rachel and I both finished with the pack with 26th and 10th respectively.

We were both really happy with our results as were were both a bit nervous about all the climbing. The race was really stressful mentally and I think we both handled it pretty well and were able to improve from the last big race we had done.

Afterward, in true professional form, Rachel and I watched the men's race and went for ice cream!

Check out pictures from the road race on Canadian Cyclist's website:

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/races10/roadnats/partfour/index.htm