This past weekend was a highlight for the 2016 road season with road provincials on Sunday at the Dogpound course north of Cochrane. The race is special because the winner gets a cool provincial jersey. This encourages everyone to race with a little more grit and determination when the shit hits the fan, and indeed it did!
Team dynamics played a large role in the race. Heading in, everyone knew that Leadout Project would be trying to put Warren Muir in the jersey. As the strongest team in the Alberta Peloton this year, Leadout Project has been formidable force. With many of the stronger riders in Alberta racing essentially independently, we made an agreement not to chase any of eachothers moves down to put pressure on the Leadout Project. Drama in the Alberta Peloton!! To be clear, we did not talk before hand about setting up Shawn Bunnin for the win, which I was later asked about.
Shawn Bunnin also voiced an interesting perspective on bike racing which I really identify with:
Shawn Bunnin (addressing myself and Stephan Becker): "Okay informal team meeting! My only goal here is that by the end of the race I've given it 100% and left it all on the road. Lets make sure this isn't just a group ride. I'm not racing just to sit in and sprint, lets race bikes!"
Myself and Stephan Becker: "Cool man! Lets do it."
As the rider lined up at the start line, one of the commissars, Robert Armstrong addressed us. "Okay guys, if it rains it's just gonna be a shitty day for a bike race... and the winner is epic! If there's a lightning storm the race is off." Minutes later the race was on, minus Andrew Davidson who broke a shifter cable minutes before the start line.... this happened to me at a TT once, it sucks. (Murphy's law?).
The opening laps were fairly chill (besides Eric Jenson's suicide mission pretty much right off the bat...) I start getting really antsy when the pace is too easy... The group was large and I wanted to make sure the numbers were reduced to better my chances. I started stressing about how I might actually have to attack at some point! Fortunately I needn't have worried. As we entered the rolling crosswind section things went bananas! I stayed with the lead five or so riders to prevent myself from getting gapped in the headwinds and tried to find my happy place as Shawn Bunnin and Dan Wood hit the rollers... We took turns at the front forming an echelon - things were pretty much full gas for about 20 minutes... My feelings were something like this:
As we rounded the corner the pace dropped off a bit, with the peloton much reduced. We hit a fairly intense bout of rain and as we rounded the corner for the rolling crosswind section again, things got ugly. This time the peloton was pretty much completely shattered with about 30ish guys reduced 7 in the first 5-10 minutes. I felt an interesting sensation of riding full vo2 max with what felt like a gardening hose held up to my face from the spray coming of everyone's rear tires. At one point Dan Wood just shouted "GO!" (While my heartrate was at like 185bpm) and he attacked. I managed to get onto his wheel. I think this was an important move as this was where we significantly reduced the group size.
The opening laps really put me in the hurt box, and I was faced with some interesting internal questions such as "wait we have to race another 70 km of this savageness??" and "Why am I doing this??" and "when am I gonna make my move??" I tried to relax and ate my banana which made me feel better. Luckily the pace dropped off a bit except for a few attacks which were brought back. The decisive move happened when Shawn Bunnin just sorta wandered off the front with 1.5 laps to go. We sat up and decided not to chase. We could see him fading into the distance and were expecting LOP riders Warren Muir or Marc Enter to chase it down, but they didn't!
As we entered the final lap there were a flurry of attack coming from various riders but Warren Muir and myself chased down pretty much everything. As we entered the final 10km it was clear that Shawn Bunnin was going to solo for the win. The finish was sort of a weary bunch sprint with only really 2-3 of the guys having enough left to properly wind it up. I finished 6th, barely able to push 250 watts in the final stretch. As I crossed the finish line a feeling of relief washed over me. Shawn Bunnin was lying on the ground, his bike in the ditch, totally spent and a big grin on his face. I couldn't help but feel happy for his victory. There were much fist bumping and high fives. Shawn gave me a big hug saying something about along the lines of "thanks you for racing today". I rolled back to the parking lot and had some excellent beef on the bun. Driving home and for the rest of the day I felt a feeling of content satisfaction and a feeling of being at peace (probably the endorphins!).
To sum up, this was one of the best races of the season for me. While I didn't podium, I felt like I affected the race outcome and I left it all out on the road, some would say this is poor tactics but this is a major reason for why I train and race - pushing the physical and mental limits and the satisfaction at the end of knowing you gave it your all. Exciting times are ahead as I will be attending the Cascade Classic from July 21 - 24th in Bend, Oregon this coming week. I'm excited to be driving down with two of the stronger junior riders in our club, Aidan Livesey and Christian Gomes. Then, the Tour of Bowness the next weekend will wrap up the 2016 road season. (If I decide to shut things down rather than holding on for another few weeks waiting for the provincial TT).
Team dynamics played a large role in the race. Heading in, everyone knew that Leadout Project would be trying to put Warren Muir in the jersey. As the strongest team in the Alberta Peloton this year, Leadout Project has been formidable force. With many of the stronger riders in Alberta racing essentially independently, we made an agreement not to chase any of eachothers moves down to put pressure on the Leadout Project. Drama in the Alberta Peloton!! To be clear, we did not talk before hand about setting up Shawn Bunnin for the win, which I was later asked about.
Shawn Bunnin also voiced an interesting perspective on bike racing which I really identify with:
Shawn Bunnin (addressing myself and Stephan Becker): "Okay informal team meeting! My only goal here is that by the end of the race I've given it 100% and left it all on the road. Lets make sure this isn't just a group ride. I'm not racing just to sit in and sprint, lets race bikes!"
Myself and Stephan Becker: "Cool man! Lets do it."
As the rider lined up at the start line, one of the commissars, Robert Armstrong addressed us. "Okay guys, if it rains it's just gonna be a shitty day for a bike race... and the winner is epic! If there's a lightning storm the race is off." Minutes later the race was on, minus Andrew Davidson who broke a shifter cable minutes before the start line.... this happened to me at a TT once, it sucks. (Murphy's law?).
The opening laps were fairly chill (besides Eric Jenson's suicide mission pretty much right off the bat...) I start getting really antsy when the pace is too easy... The group was large and I wanted to make sure the numbers were reduced to better my chances. I started stressing about how I might actually have to attack at some point! Fortunately I needn't have worried. As we entered the rolling crosswind section things went bananas! I stayed with the lead five or so riders to prevent myself from getting gapped in the headwinds and tried to find my happy place as Shawn Bunnin and Dan Wood hit the rollers... We took turns at the front forming an echelon - things were pretty much full gas for about 20 minutes... My feelings were something like this:
As we rounded the corner the pace dropped off a bit, with the peloton much reduced. We hit a fairly intense bout of rain and as we rounded the corner for the rolling crosswind section again, things got ugly. This time the peloton was pretty much completely shattered with about 30ish guys reduced 7 in the first 5-10 minutes. I felt an interesting sensation of riding full vo2 max with what felt like a gardening hose held up to my face from the spray coming of everyone's rear tires. At one point Dan Wood just shouted "GO!" (While my heartrate was at like 185bpm) and he attacked. I managed to get onto his wheel. I think this was an important move as this was where we significantly reduced the group size.
The opening laps really put me in the hurt box, and I was faced with some interesting internal questions such as "wait we have to race another 70 km of this savageness??" and "Why am I doing this??" and "when am I gonna make my move??" I tried to relax and ate my banana which made me feel better. Luckily the pace dropped off a bit except for a few attacks which were brought back. The decisive move happened when Shawn Bunnin just sorta wandered off the front with 1.5 laps to go. We sat up and decided not to chase. We could see him fading into the distance and were expecting LOP riders Warren Muir or Marc Enter to chase it down, but they didn't!
As we entered the final lap there were a flurry of attack coming from various riders but Warren Muir and myself chased down pretty much everything. As we entered the final 10km it was clear that Shawn Bunnin was going to solo for the win. The finish was sort of a weary bunch sprint with only really 2-3 of the guys having enough left to properly wind it up. I finished 6th, barely able to push 250 watts in the final stretch. As I crossed the finish line a feeling of relief washed over me. Shawn Bunnin was lying on the ground, his bike in the ditch, totally spent and a big grin on his face. I couldn't help but feel happy for his victory. There were much fist bumping and high fives. Shawn gave me a big hug saying something about along the lines of "thanks you for racing today". I rolled back to the parking lot and had some excellent beef on the bun. Driving home and for the rest of the day I felt a feeling of content satisfaction and a feeling of being at peace (probably the endorphins!).
To sum up, this was one of the best races of the season for me. While I didn't podium, I felt like I affected the race outcome and I left it all out on the road, some would say this is poor tactics but this is a major reason for why I train and race - pushing the physical and mental limits and the satisfaction at the end of knowing you gave it your all. Exciting times are ahead as I will be attending the Cascade Classic from July 21 - 24th in Bend, Oregon this coming week. I'm excited to be driving down with two of the stronger junior riders in our club, Aidan Livesey and Christian Gomes. Then, the Tour of Bowness the next weekend will wrap up the 2016 road season. (If I decide to shut things down rather than holding on for another few weeks waiting for the provincial TT).
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