This past weekend was my first time racing in Saskatoon. I’ve always been busy with TEC on the May long, but this year just wasn’t the same. So me and my mom took to the road on Saturday. After a quick spin it was off for the short opening time trial.
I was happy with the way I rode. I hadn’t ridden the whole thing, but I was pretty sure I knew enough about what was coming. But it did seem really long. I just kept pushing and pushing. At least it wasn’t raining, the ground was just wet. I think this will be the first I will have needed to clean my TT bike. I ended up with what I thought would be a pretty good time… about 30″ behind Bruce.
I wound up 4th, which was even more of a breakthrough than the last couple weekends have been. It was kind of exciting. And with Bruce leading GC, we were sitting pretty. But…
about 5 minutes before the start of the road race, Bruce’s rear shifter broke. They were able to scam enough stuff together to get him a 14 to go along with his 53-39. 2 gears… yay! Nobody knew but me though. He tried attacking early a couple times, and I think I will always remember Phil accelerating onto his wheel at one point and said that he was hoping it was a joke. I just laughed because I knew it wasn’t. After that, a break went with 3 guys. Nobody wanted to work, so Eric sat on the front for about 15kms. When we turned around, Bruce took to the gutter with me on his wheel. He tore apart the field a bit. But then on the way out again, we did the same thing. He completely ripped apart the field this time. I was pretty fried and almost got dropped for good at one point. Thanks for the tow Craig! But Bruce was able to get back on the front in the crosswind and bring back the 3 breakaways. Steenbergen was the next to attack, but I couldn’t quite close onto his wheel and knew I wasn’t going to be able to last the last 30kms out front. Dang. But nobody really wanted to chase… obviously. Devin was able to attack still and we knew once they grouped it would be race over. I was in no shape to organize the chase though… I ended up just missing out on the final attacks and wound up 9th on the day and was sitting 5th in GC.
The crit was a rainy day. I wasn’t worried about it for some reason though. Eric didn’t start, so I was basically in 4th on GC with Chris McNeil 5″ in front of me and Phil 15″ behind me. There were a few other guys within about 30″, but I knew they would need more than time bonuses to catch me. The top 8 in crit almost all day were pretty similar to the top 8 on GC. I had to close some decent gaps and wasn’t my 100% confident self in the corners. But it was basically together, with Devin on the front. I sat on Phil’s wheel for as much of the race as I could. He got the first 5″ prime, but Devin stole the second one. None of us were really trying for the money ones though. Phil kind of attacked with 1.5 laps to go, but I closed onto his wheel and sat there through the final corner. I tried to come around him and was doing it, but then the line came and he got me by about half a bike length.
I was worried he caught me with his bonuses, but I forgot about my 10″ bonus. So I really just missed out on an extra $75. I’ll settle for third and $200. A great weekend and a bit of a continued breakthrough for me this year!
Now it’s time to go get killed by the real big boys in Mt. Hood!
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