Hugh Trenchard

In the simmering heat of a July weekend in White Rock for the 30th edition of my favorite bicycle race, this year did not mark two years in a row in which I could be part of a 60 km four-up breakaway in the road race. Certainly I was on better form at this time last year after returning from the 6-stage Cascade Classic the weekend before and coming into White Rock with my best form in many years. This year I have felt generally flat nearly all season long, and did not feel I gained much form after the Mt Hood stage race in early June. This despite a couple of minor successes including two mid-week wins this year (Victoria Cycling League races) in which there were few participants, and a couple of half decent Masters race results, but overall nothing of particular noteworthiness.

Still, the final result for me in White Rock was much the same as last year.

The race has for many years been of an omnium format, which means points are accumulated for placing in each individual race, of which there were three: a hill climb, a criterium and a road race – and for which the total combined points determines the winner. One may thus select any combination of races in which to participate. This is in contrast to a stage race in which the winner is determined on the lowest accumulated time, and so by necessity riders must complete each stage in order to race the next one.

I have never raced the hill climb. Being less than two minutes in length and taking place on a Friday, it has usually not been convenient to do, given work commitments etc. However, I have competed in the criterium and road race several times, with varying degrees of success, or lack thereof. Both races are very hard – the criterium has a 300 metre, 4 percent, hill up one side of the 1km course and, at 60km long (60 laps), makes for about 18k of big ring on-the-rivet climbing. The criterium was won for the second year in a row by Andrew Pinfold in 1:10, with the rest of the 45 Pro/cat 1,2 finishers through, mostly as a group, following within seconds of Andrew, and me in 33rd, with 15 or so dropping out and a couple of crashes to boot, which I fortunately missed.

I was happy with my result, given the rough state of my legs for many weeks, and I felt the body was reasonably well rested and ready for that level of intensity. The race did not feel as hard this year, as last year there were a few stronger teams in the race, it seemed, although in reality it likely was not very much slower.

The road race was held the next morning. It consists of a circuit of 11 long laps each about 11k, and 6 short laps of about 4km (or this is the way the race is supposed to be!), a total of about 134 km.
The race proved rather strange.

For my part, certainly last year I was much better recovered after the criterium, but after a long breakaway effort still ended up a short loop (4km) down on Chris Horner, the Astana team member, and me being one of the last finishers. In all my years of doing White Rock, there have never been more than 40 finishers of the 80 to 100 who usually start the race. It is such a hard race, and configured in such a way that unless you make it onto the short loop circuit before the barriers go up, you’re day is over, which discourages many riders from finishing if they find themselves off the back.

As for other finishing riders, there was much confusion. The Costa Rican leader, off on a solo breakaway, was misdirected and began the short loops too soon, while the chasers continued for one additional lap; those farther back, like myself, ended up in some other half-state purgatorial strange loop.

From the start, after three of the fastest first laps I can ever remember on that course, I found myself popped the fourth time up the 16% Magdallen climb, after a big ring sprint up Columbia just prior. But as many dropped out after similar fates, I kept going and found myself in a small group, which whittled to two of us who, seemingly by a miracle, found that we made the small circuit before the barriers went up. Meanwhile, the Costa Rican rider had soloed away from the main bunch, and thereafter occurred the noted confusion.

Being several minutes back of the main chase group, I am still not certain what exactly transpired, but I believe I was thus directed onto the small course one long lap shy of the full 11 we were scheduled for, and being more than half a long loop back (each about 11km), and they being directed for the full last loop, I and a Glotman Simpson rider, Marvin Guzman, ended up on the short circuit roughly in line with the chasers.

To be honest I am not all at all clear what happened, but as we made it onto the short course before the barriers were erected, we were allowed to finish, presumably to receive a pro-rated time based on finishing one short loop down and change. As it stands, the number of finishers was 35, and I and Marvin should have been recorded as about 31st and 32nd, with 3 others whom we were ahead of coming onto the short course being behind us, I believe. Currently, however, among all the confusion, results show us as 19th and 20th. This is wrong, and I am currently endeavoring to correct the results.

Nonetheless, in summary, I am glad for the finishing result, as it is such a hard race to do and to end up shut out by the barriers, although I do hope the results can be corrected to show more accurately where I finished.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.