Ryan Aitcheson took the win in one of the final races of the 2009 year for Jet Fuel Coffee out sprinting Canadian National Road Race champion Guillaume Boivin in a punishing 138 lap feature final. It was an exciting result in front of a buzzing crowd and shows some real promise for the 2010 season.
Ryan and I lined up at 7pm on Saturday for a qualifier in the Can-AM-Que challenge which had many racers from the US, Quebec and Ontario on hand to test their late season speed. Ryan had just flown in from LA where he was training with fellow Jet Fuel riders at the Canadian National Team camp. With some real depth in the field to go with Ryan’s jet lag, we definitely had our work cut out for us.
The first attack flew about 3 laps into the first qualifier. Soon after, Ryan launched and I worked my way up to his wheel. From there on out, we were pretty much flying for the rest of the night. We eventually reeled in the original attacker from Quebec (nice move Remi) and proceeded to lap the pack. I took the pack sprint with Ryan on my wheel to go 1 – 2 and qualify on to the next round.
The Semi was a little faster with the talent being refined to the faster riders. Attacks flew from the gun and the laps flew by. This time Ryan took a final hard turn at the front and we finished elbow to elbow with Remi and Guillaume to secure a spot in the feature final of the night.
After watching some impressive sprinting and repechage races (last attempts to qualify for the final) the fatigue was starting to set in. As we rode to the rail to start the 138 lap final, a $100 prime was announced for the first rider to lap the field along with some more dollars up for grabs in a sprint prime. This ensured that it would be a tough battle.
The first few laps flew by with no one creating an insurmountable gap. Finally, Canadian National Road Race champ, Guillaume Boivin of Team Planet Energy put in a valiant effort to take the $100. Right before he latched on the back of the group I put in a hard dig to keep the Planet Energy rider out on his own. This opened the door for Ryan and he launched like a missile out of a cannon and quickly got on terms with the leader. Ryan and Guillaume managed to lap the field two more times while marking each other for the remainder of the race.
Hoping for a Jet Fuel 1 – 2 again, I attacked hard toward the end. I managed to pull back two of the 3 lap advantage taking one Quebec rider with me for one. With less than 20 laps left, I was back in the field and had 3rd place wrapped up being 2 laps ahead of the field with Ryan and Guillaume 3 laps up. Ryan let a gap open and told me to “go for it.” I went as hard as I could and managed to catch the field for a third time. However, Ryan and Guillaume had escaped once again and were gone for the win.
Ryan showed no signs of the jet lag or fatigue from a week of hard training with the National Team in the end. He turned on the burners and left the National champ behind with nothing but the smell of Jet Fuel fumes. It was an impressive show for the young rider and another great event at the Forest City Velodrome. A big Congrats goes out to all the racers and, especially, Guillaume for a gutsy ride and performing like a real champion.
haha it was definatly a hard race but we did it!!
Nice write up Dave