This past weekend the team took part in the Canadian National Road Championships in Lac Megantic Quebec. Johnny and Heidi had booked us an unreal cottage right on the lake for us to stay in for the weekend that was under 2km away from the start of the road race and crit so we were able to ride anywhere we needed.
I arrived Thursday evening after a long 10 hour drive from Toronto (is there ever a time when there is no traffic going through Montreal), Riggs had already been there for a couple of days and Anton arrived Friday afternoon after staying at a friends in Montreal the night before.
Saturday was the big day, the National Road Race Championships. 180km on a killer circuit. The day started off sunny and warm but right as we were about to start the rain started and didn’t stop for at least 2 hours. It was a very hard 40km out the circuit into the driving rain. I don’t think i have ever raced my bike in rain that hard before. It felt like little bee stings when we were going 60+ km/hr down a hill with the rain belting us. It was also raining so hard that i found it hard to breathe. With every breath i felt like i was drinking a glass of water. Not fun when you are riding uphill at 50 km/hr. Yes i said uphill! About 30 km a break finally went away and things chilled out a little bit in the pack. The first time up the climb in the circuits the group went really easy, and I know myself and a lot other riders were thinking ‘maybe we will go this slow every time up’. This wasn’t the case. Once over the top and on the bottom of the course, Mike Barry drilled it through the cross wind and shattered the field. I had made the split but was at my limit heading into the next time up the climb, where it went even harder and I was dropped. I rolled around for a couple more laps in a group of 25 or so before calling it a day going through the feed zone. Riggs had done the same. Anton had made it over the climb with the group on the second lap but unfortunately flatted in a bad spot and couldn’t get back up to the group, so his day was over as well. So we drove back into town to watch the finish where ex-jet fueler Ryan Roth took the win. Congratulations Ryan!
Sunday was the National Crit championships. With only Anton and I lined up for Jet Fuel we knew we would have a difficult time, but we thought Anton had a good chance to get onto the podium. The race was really fast but it was relatively easy to just sit in the group and save your legs. I tried a couple times to get away in a break but nothing was staying away and I could tell it was going to end in a sprint. With about 5 laps to go Anton and I were too far back in the group so I used the last of my matches to get him up to the front. He sat about 10th wheel until 2 laps to go where he moved up to 5th or 6th wheel. Perfect position. On the last lap everything was looking good, Anton was in great position and the back was strung out so it should be a clean sprint, or so we though. In the second last corner about 400m from the finish there a big crash in the first few riders that Anton was caught behind. He didn’t go down but his race was over. It was a disappointment but that is bike racing.
Right after the crit, i packed up my stuff to head home but Anton stayed for the Sprint Challenge, with the winner getting to race with the pros and the Pro sprint challenge in Quebec city right before the Pro Tour races their in September. You would have to ask Anton how it went down but he Won! A great end to a disappointing weekend.
Next up we have a weekend off to enjoy Canada day, then we’re off to Vancouver on July 5th for BC superweek.
Stay tuned
Evan