After a hard race on Sunday, I was questioning whether I would be sufficiently recovered to race again today, especially a race of the level of difficulty that Mt Newton (“hilly crit”) is.
I’d taken Monday off entirely from training, with about 1.5 hours of spinning yesterday. I felt quite good yesterday, but awoke today feeling rather knackered, but thought I would decide at the day’s end whether to race or not. In the end I chose to go, riding out the highway to the race start on roads near Mt. Newton.
When a commuter went blasting by me with a big back pack on during my ride out, I thought it to be a bad sign. Maybe time to turn around and take another day of rest, I thought. However, I began to loosen up as I went, and knew I would probably feel better on short hard climbs than on something flat and high speed for the day.
There were about 15 in the A group this week, with a few more strong guys among it. The race was 18 laps over the beasty climb. As usual, the race was essentially attrition. Andrew McCartney, winner of the last hilly crit, and who last week won the Caleb Pike race on a solo break, pulled out – he was experiencing tightness in his calves and shins after walking around on Sunday watching the world championship triathlon in Vancouver. He has been fighting an injury, evidently made worse by a lot of walking.
As the laps wore on it came down to: Kenyon Campbell,fresh off his Cat 4 win on Sunday; Category 1 riders Marcel Aarden, Trevor Connor, Nick Hamilton (who arrived a little late), and me. Stephen Kilshaw, Pac Sport triathlete, did well to hang on until about 7 to go, as did another of the Aviawest riders, whose name I am unsure of. With two to go, Nick and I accelerated over the top of the climb and went through the bell lap with a small gap over the others. We were away until the bottom of the climb on the last lap, but Marcel, Trevor and Kenyon did well to get back to us and, as they did, Marcel went straight past, taking Kenyon with him. So the final result was Marcel, Kenyon, me, and Trevor. Nick, who was physically ahead of me, was not given a finishing place due to his late arrival, I understand.
A fun little race, and I definitely have some good solid base fitness. I’ll need to take a break soon, leading up to Superweek and/or the Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon.
Results at www.duanebc.com
http://www.duanebc.com/raceresults2008/VCL2008races/newton6_11_08.htm
Entries (RSS)
June 12th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Good Race Hugh. When you and Nick were ahead on the bell lap I thought it was over. Trevor sacrificed himself on the decent and flat to get Marcel and I back up to you. After that I barely had enough left to get to the line. Much thanks goes out to Trevor for that effort. As always it was great racing with you and some higher category riders with more experience. I feel like I learn a little bit more after racing with you guys every wednesday.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Thanks for your note, Kenyon. Great to see you develop. I think you and Gillian both have a great future ahead if you can find the time to train and race. It won’t be long before you are winning Cat 1,2 races, I am sure.
June 19th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Hugh, I am mightily disappointed. How many times have I told you to dig deep into your suitcase of courage? And how many times have you pulled out a stuffed teddy bear and not a hissing viper or starved puma? You and I need to ride together so I can show you what the bottom of the pain pit looks like. That is, if I can keep my pedal on!
Seriously, nice result. Hopefully my form will be there soon and I can join you a the VCL and get dropped. LOL.