Effingham Race Report

Sunday, May, 17 2009

Racing Effingham with a full squad was a blast.  It's been a long time and it was definitely fun!

The strategy didn't quite work out as expected but it was good to see we had the strength (both individually and as a team) to give it a shot.

Here's how it went.

On lap three, the KOM lap, there was a surge at the front. The pace to  the base of the climb was set high (on purpose) and, as a result, the group stretched much more than it had in the first two climbs. I was at
the top not too far from the front and sat up a bit to take stock of where things were at and where the rest of the team was. Unfortunately, the scattered riders began forming into groups for the descent. I was in the second group watching the first group pull away. In hind sight, I should have just climbed with the first group and sat in - but I didn't.

In the cross winds, it was clear the teams with riders in the break were marshalling the front. Definitely not blocking (the road was too wide for that) but setting a very low pace. At the turn (into the tail wind)
we were 45 seconds behind and a few riders went to the front and set a very hard pace to the turn onto Effingham. At the climb, we were 40 seconds behind a group of almost 20. I was confident that at the top, we
could muster a group to chase and catch the lead pack. The climb didn't quite work as I had expected. The peloton broke into groups at the top and was clearly fatigued. I was in the first group, Scott, Andrew, and
Andy were in the second and third groups. Mark Carli had flatted so had to chase on ... I think it was on this lap but I'm not sure. I didn't catch site of Johnny Y or Rhys at that point. We were together after the descent and made our way closer to the front. Martin offered to work with us on a chase but it didn't quite materialize (and with the head
winds there didn't seem to be any other takers).

In the cross winds, I saw a good opportunity and went right to the front with Scott on my wheel. I jumped ahead to Mike McKee who had rolled off the front. Andrew came through as well but then dropped back to the main group. Scott stayed protected in the main group. Lorne Anderson joined us and then Lorne, Mike, and I chased. We lost 10 to 15 seconds each lap but with such a big lead group, we knew we would be lucky to even keep
pace. We were eventually caught by a group of 6 from behind us but with only 1.5 laps to go, we knew we wouldn't catch the leaders (and even if we did, we were all toast).

It would have been nice to have one rider in the lead break but we didn't have the legs for that yesterday. As a team, this was our great showing at Effingham. Andy came in with the main bunch (welcome to M1)  Mark, despite his flat still managed to roll in and finish all 8 climbs up the hill.

My fitness continues to improve and I'm looking forward to the rest of the racing season. I downloaded my PowerTap file from the race - nothing impressive to report there. My average and peak power are still both
lower than last year at this point. The climbs (until the last two) were all around 400 Watts for 2 minutes - less than my Tmax intervals but exhausting given the tough lead-in to every climb. I think the Toronto
Crit is the next big race on our calendar. I'll be on the side lines screaming all sorts of encouragement and useless advice.

- Cary