Kelowna Stage Race

BC Cup #7 - Kelowna. Three stages: 3.8 km hill climb & 60min + 2 lap criterium on Saturday, 120 km road race Sunday

Last year this time I was coming on to decent form and had what for me was a good race when I finished 15th in the general classification over four stages (it was shortened this year to three stages). This year my form is at least as good, but I have been feeling tired since White Rock, following on the Cascade Classic the week previous. And, after what felt like a very ragged week of quasi-training and resting and feeling on the edge of catching a bug, I was quite prepared to feel quite burned and flat for this race.

The 3.8km hill climb up Knox Mountain Saturday morning, after the Friday evening spent traveling with Trevor Connor and Casey Ryder, was painful and at 10:16 my time was a mere 3 seconds faster than last year. Last year I was on a heavier bike and generally inferior equipment, so my thought was that I was likely to be significantly faster than last year, so was a little disappointed with my time, but was not surprised given the week leading up to it.

Will Routley (Symmetrics) who was 19th overall at the Cascade Classic, took the winning time in 9 minutes flat, and there were about 25 guys between him and me of a field of 47 in the Cat 1,2 field. I would have been happier with a sub-10min time, but it could have been worse. Trevor Connor, who had been sick all week, managed to tough out the climb in 9:38, while Casey, riding his first stage race in the men’s master event held on for just over 12 minutes.

With lungs burning from the dry air and the effort of the hill climb, and my heart-rate remaining high through the day, I was not feeling optimistic about the criterium. However, once we began at 6:30 that evening, my solid fitness base took over, and over the 60 minutes plus 2 laps around the sweeping 1km course, I was able to generate a few attacks, get into a few breakaway attempts and generally make a good race of it.

While the criterium was rich with attacks, the bunch ultimately stayed together, and although I held a top 10 position for most of the race, by the finish I likely ended up somewhere around 20th (I have not yet seen the final results). A crash on the last corner, resulting from a fellow’s front tire blowing out, slowed up the field that followed behind, and I was just on the inside of him as he slid out. It looked a bit nasty, and I haven’t heard how he is doing.
The race went by quickly, and, when they rang the bell with 2 laps to go it seemed to me we had only been racing for about 40 minutes, which is a testament to my good fitness.

Fortunately, rather than breaking me down, I felt as though the criterium opened my system, and I felt more fully recovered after that than after the hill climb. After the race, with Trevor laying low at our UBC Okanagan campus digs for the evening and still suffering somewhat from his bug, Casey and I popped downtown for dinner at a lakefront restaurant - the busiest night of the year, we were told.

Overnight my heart-rate dropped and by the morning was 48bpm, and I felt rested by the morning, to my pleasant surprise.

The Cat 1,2 race was shortened to 120k after originally being slated for 130k, over an undulating, technical course with one steep and difficult 600m climb and a lot of tough rollers along the way. The race played out rather strangely. A breakaway of about 6 riders, with most of the major teams represented, rolled off on the first lap, just before the difficult climb. Being in a good position to join it, I delayed in getting onto it, largely thinking the field would follow on. It began to slip away, and leading onto the climb I closed the gap to the break, thinking the pack would then jump across to it on the descent. That didn’t happen, and so shortly afterward, I made an attempt to bridge across on my own. However, on the descent and up some rollers, I made no in-roads on the the breakaway, while the pack was content to watch it slip away. I thought best to drop back to the pack.

As the pack was not chasing at all, being a solo rider with no team mates, I decided I might as well get myself onto the front of the pack and ride tempo to keep the breakaway close. Many would argue this was a fruitless move on my part, but the race was over otherwise, in my mind, if we were to let the breakaway gain four or more minutes on us - over for me, and any others without teams, that is, but not over for those with team-mates in the breakaway. At one point, after I’d been on the front for nearly a full lap with Ryan Anderson and Will Routley of Symmetrics and everyone else calmly sitting on my wheel, Trevor rode up beside me and asked me why I was riding at the front, and demanded that I get off it.

Largely, Trevor was right, since I was gradually frying myself, but in the end it assisted in changing the nature of the race considerably, since the breakaway was held at less than two minutes, and ultimately was gobbled up, as I note below. Cyrus Kangerloo of Team H & R Block rode a similar race to mine, spending a lot of time at the front, as he had no team-mates in the break.

Events continued to unfold. Tim Sherstobitoff, the Symmetrics rider in the break, had a mechanical problem causing him to retire from the race. This forced Symmetrics to take up the chase. On about lap five, I took a short flyer just before the hill and, as I was cresting over the top of the climb, I could see Will behind me attacking it with a vengeance and shattering the group up the climb. All I could think of was “thank god I came over that hill ahead of the pack, since I might have been dropped by that attack.” When Will came across to me I took the ride on his wheel for the better part of half a lap, and when we went by Tim Sherstobitoff standing at the side of the road with a wheel in his had, it became apparent to me why Will had attacked and that he was attempting bridge across to the breakaway on his own (albeit with me on his wheel).

Despite being the strongest rider and significantly gapping the field, there were enough strong riders remaining in the group, and Will’s attempt was soon brought to bay. But his effort sliced the time to the breakaway, now being reduced to less than a minute. Ryan Anderson, who’d also taken up the chase for Symmetrics eventually dropped off, while the pack had whittled by steady attrition down to about 15, which group I managed to hang on to.

With a few more attacks from Will and others, finally I cracked up the last climb, and came in with Curtis Deardon (also of Victoria) and a Total Restoration rider, about a minute back. Total Restoration is a strong Kelowna based team, which had three guys remaining in top 15 by the finish. So, I think I ended up about 15th or 16th in the end, about the same as last year. I was actually quite happy with this, although ideally I would have stuck with the front group right to the finishing sprint.

The race was an omnium points format, and I finished outside the points in the HC and the crit, given to the top 10. Points went 15 deep in the RR, and if I’m lucky received 1 (!) for that stage. The RR was the most difficult of the stages, and the final omnium classification on points will not be an accurate reflection of how the race played out, and I would argue a time classification is the most appropriate format for a stage race, as it was last year. There are a number of arguments either way, and I won’t get into them at the moment. It depends a bit on how the final results for each race are posted as to whether one’s efforts are diminished by the omnium format. So, until I see the results, I’ll have to reserve judgment on it.

In any event, I was happy with my racing. After the race, Trevor suggested I had the strength to win this race, if I’d only allocated it more wisely. Perhaps a top 5, in my mind, but even so one never knows how a race will play out. I could easily have sat in the pack when the break went away, and it would have been 5 minutes up the road before anyone responded, and the race would have been over. For me, I’m more satisfied knowing I gave it everything I had on the day and finished 16th, rather than finishing in some unknown position by sitting in the pack. I love to race and bust my butt - not sit in and let the race be taken to me, regardless of the outcome. There is much for me to learn, this is true, but at my age, I’m perfectly happy knowing I can still race at this level - I don’t really have a burning need to perfect the niceties of racing strategy for better results. Then again, my current fairly high level of fitness has been a bit of surprise to me, and perhaps even a small adjustment in tactics will change my own results considerably.

So, the plan now is to take 5 days off the bike, and one week easy before building again for the five-stage race, Tobago Classic in September. That race will feature a ton of climbing, and will be very difficult, but doubtless will prove to be a fantastic experience.

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