August Happenings

August 14-15 Weekend
Quick updates from last weekend...

-Sarah has been spending some time on the track in BC and hopped into a crit in Steveston last weekend. Got herself on the podium again!

-Tricia headed out to the Bromont Canada Cup. It sounded like a challenging and technical course (with the first half of each loop climbing and the second half a technical decent). She was 11th out of 20 finishers and 26 starters. Good job Tricia!

-I raced in Elliot Lake, which was a fun adventure (and an 8 hour drive!). Over the weekend there was a crit, a hill climb and a road race. The crit course was a bit challenging, with a downhill/off camber corner and rain starting 10 minutes before the race finished!

The hill climb was the result I was most excited about over the weekend, 8th place, and only 32 seconds behind the winner, over 3.5k. I think (hope?) this shows improvement in my climbing. The road race ended up a bunch sprint, where I was 8th again.

Just so this post doesn't become too long, I won't go into too much detail... but some other stellar August results for Stevens Racing p/b The Cyclery ladies:

-Sue set another OBC TT record on August 12th, going under 20 minutes - a feat only accomplished by a handful of men ... awesome!

-Michelle got on the podium at GP Cycliste Vaudreuil-Soulange, August 8th. Nicely done!

-Lastly, although slightly (haha) less prestigious than the OBC TT, I set a new ladies course record at the Speed River Club TT this evening. Lots of fun.



-- Rachel

Almost

August 8 - Kelso MTB O-Cup #6
It has been a while since we've traveled via Hwy 401 to a race but this past weekend saw an early morning departure on Saturday with Milton, Ontario as the destination. Only one major slowdown on the 401 in the outskirts of Toronto and we made it intact (just a little stiff and crossed-eyed from the drive).

Personally, I have not been much of a fan of Kelso. I think it stems from my early days racing mountain bikes. Kelso (I believe) was my first senior expert race (as a master-aged rider) en route trying to upgrade to Senior Elite. That race was not a pretty sight. Ever since Kelso has been a love-hate thing for me (purposefully skipping it on occasion). Part of it is because of THE climb at Kelso. This year though, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe Kelso is growing on me. Perhaps it had to do with the score of blackberries we came across on the pre-ride (not quite as good (or as BIG) as BC berries but good enough for me to stop for 5 mins and fill my mitts full!) and the super dry conditions. The running of the course this year was made of one big climb at the start of each lap and then some fun, twisty, swoopy trails for the rest. No section ever too long of one thing. Very well done. The climb, well it was however many minutes of grinding but we all had to do it and I actually like climbing (as much as one can "like" climbing...) this year with my super light Stevens Scope (a wee hardtail 26" wheeler).

The race. I'm not one to get super pumped about a bike race. (I think I am getting more mellow with age...) Sunday was no different. Standing in the startline I'd done everything as per usual/same routine - ho-hum. But once we got the 'go', I automatically 'went' and actually had an ok start (uphill...) managing to get up a few more spots before the big climb started. Once a line up the climb had started, someone in front of me bobbled and forced a few of us off their bikes. Almost made it. Run, jump back on the bike and keep climbing. (Got around one or two more riders). I could see the leading riders just up ahead, so I kept pushing. A few back and forths with two riders over the course of the race and then by all accounts if I recalled correctly when I passed Sue H. on the last time up the climb it put me into 3rd spot!

Now Sue is for certain a better technical rider than I am so I knew I needed to put some space between us which I managed to do in the climbing bits. All was looking good until, uh-oh, chain suck with less than half a lap to the finish. Trying not to panic (I'm generally not prone to get a lot of mechanical problems so it is unfamiliary territory for me) I really struggled to get the chain out of the spokes. It was stuck. Wheel had to come off. Sue passed me (as did a ton of guys). End of the show. Well, almost. I got the chain back on then got back on the bike to make sure not to lose 4th spot. With a bit of careful shifting, I rode the one last 'tricky' off-cambre climb and headed to the finish line. All done but for the crying - no crying actually. I was really happy with my ride. It was a perfect day, I had great support in teammates Mel and Rachel who cheered and fed me (thank you ladies!) and to top it off Rob P won his race!

One last MTB O-Cup on the schedule. It is almost over. First time in - ever? - that I will have done all the MTB O-Cups.

So far (for the last eight years) it's been a great ride!

-- Tricia K.

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