Niagara Classic - Effingham

By: Matthew Jeffries

 

My first race of the year and first as a proud member of Project Freeride.  Not a particularly large field for the S3 / Jr Men race - approx. 30 S3 riders and 25 juniors.  The race was 85km in length, or 7 laps of the traditional 12.3km circuit finishing at the top of Saylor's Hill on Effingham Road.  Weather conditions were less than ideal with temperatures below 10 degrees, gusty winds, and intermittent rain showers.

 

The race started off as I expected with a leisurely roll around the 12km circuit punctuated by a lung busting charge up the climb.  My plan for the race was to sit in as much as I could for the flats/descents and then ride hard on the climb to ensure I was among the first 5 or 10 riders over the hill.  I expected that after 4 or 5 laps the field would be soft enough that the first group of riders over the top would be able to establish a gap and the defining selection would be made.  This was not how it played out.  Each time over the climb the field was broken up and strung out as expected.   However, no one at the front was willing to push the pace and ride hard enough on the back stretch (Tice Road) to crystallize a gap.  As a result, despite consistently being in the first group over the hill, I would turn around 2 or 3km later and see 20-30 riders re-grouped behind me.  The casual pace of the peloton became more than abundantly clear on lap 4 when the S3 women's peloton caught and passed the men's group on Tice Rd!  All in all the first 6 laps were relatively uneventful.  Ian Young from Handlebars CC slipped off the front midway though lap 3 and managed to establish what seemed like a large gap.  I thought he was long gone but the peloton ended up reeling him in at the end of lap 6.

 

Things eventually picked up on the final lap with numerous accelerations and attacks going off the front.  By this point my legs were pretty fried from having hammered the climb 6 times - I found myself struggling to respond to many of the accelerations and was almost popped off the back a couple of times.  Nonetheless, I managed to hang on and position myself at the front of the group as we turned onto Effingham for the final ascent.  As we rounded the corner a rider from Sudbury Cycling Club attacked and established a gap of about 20 metres as we neared the base of the climb.  I figured it was "now or never" so I made an attempt to follow him.  Unfortunately it was more "never" than "now" - I got a small gap on the rest of the pack but then blew up hard when the road pitched up.  Grinded my way up the remainder of the hill and rolled to a 15th place finish (for the race), 7th place in S3.  Not exactly the result I'd hoped for but it was a fun race and a tremendous learning experience.  A huge thank you goes out to Brian Spargo at Endurosport for lending me his Ksyrium wheel set for the race as my back wheel was in the shop awaiting a replacement freehub.  And another huge thanks to Andy and his girlfriend Diane for all their support (in both vocal and coca-cola format) at the top of Saylor's Hill.