Devon GP Stage Race Report

Howdy all,

So i got the Saturday off of work this weekend and entered the Devon GP stage race as my first cycling race ever. It was better late than never as i missed a few of the early races due to work or a nagging knee issue.

Somehow I convinced my PRW teammate Isa to put up with me all weekend so that i could get a ride to all the races with him, thanks for that Isa, I definitely appreciate the Digitalism in the car on the way to all the races.

So the first stage was a 2km Prologue held in downtown Devon, it was Friday night at 7pm and we went off in 30 second intervals according to your category. I was racing Cat 5 (the lowest category) as this was my first year holding an ABA license. So Isa picked me up from the shop at 6pm just after work and we headed out with Jama to the race site. Got there a bit early and it had just stopped raining so the roads were soaked, I was racing deep wheels like in Half Moon so i rode around a bit to get used to the tires in the wet cause i had never tried them before. I didn't know the course as we got there after they closed it so i was just flying blind. I took off and hammered as hard as I could and just took the corners as hard as possible. I finished up quick, rode a little cool down and then drove back to Edmonton.

I had noticed earlier that my time trial bike had a frayed cable that needed to be changed so Jama and I headed over late at night around 10pm to the PRW shop so i could work on the bike and get it fixed. We ordered pizza there and finished up around 11:30pm then road home in the pissing rain. Got to bed by midnight, not a perfect pre-race night.

The next morning i found out that i had won the cat 5 prologue, and had the 5th fastest time overall when you count all of the categories, definitely a nice way to start the race.

Time trial started for me at 10:10 am Saturday morning and Isa was pretty late picking me up due to having problems with his own bike but i knew a better route to get out there and he hammered down the highway to get me there at 9:30am with plenty of time before the start. I was a little worried but it worked out perfectly. It was a perfect situation to practice something going wrong and learning how to deal with it (my coach Kevin would have loved this). I had a great warm up on the trainer and in full TT kit rolled down the ramp motivated to crush the 16km flat T style course. I hammered the course as hard as I could, accelerated out of the 180 degree turns and kept the throttle on to catch 5 guys who had started in 1 min intervals in front of me. Afterward I had a solid 30 min cool down on the trainer and we headed home to rest for the crit.

When I cam back for the crit at 4:35pm I found out that i had won my category in the Time trial by over a minute and had placed 7th overall when you count all the categories. So now I was sitting 1st place in the GC by over a minute with two my teammate Dave in second and my other team mate Joe in fourth. After chatting the Cat 5 team of myself, Joe, Dave, Matt and Dan decided it was best to be on the front and set the pace for the crit and control the attacks to preserve GC place. The course was a four corner 1km lap and we did 15 laps total. We took off and controlled for the first two laps then i got a bit relaxed and let a couple guys ahead who almost took down the group. After that I sat at the front with Joe and Dan the rest of the crit hammering to whittle the group down. Joe took the time bonus halfway in, and though we botched the finish i was able to scrape on the podium with a third place, unfortunately Joe and Dave got caught in the back while Dan had got caught after a hard late lap attack. I had a solid cool down and got to think about how we would approach the next day.

After talking to the race organizer Bruce about the road race course i realized there was a good chance of a tail wind on the way home and that there was a deciding hill with 30km remaining in the 70km race. After talking to the boys and seeing the standings (me first, Joe second, and Dave third) we decided that the best option was to let others take over for the first 30 km, and then when we got to the turn around we would have either Dan or Matt go with me on the hill if i felt good, and the other would get Joe and Dave in a good position to stay with the lead group on the hill. So when we got to the bottom of the hill I attacked hard in the big ring and pulled two guys, one of which was Matt, we dropped the other guy and had a 10 sec gap at the top of the hill. Matt was able to then take a pull and give me a rest, and then when i pulled around him he hung for a bit before he dropped. So I was alone, with 30km of road between me and the finish. I got into my 53 x 12 and hammered like a time trial as hard as i could to build a gap. I ultimately got close to a minute and then just kept the pressure on all the way home to win solo. I turned around and waited for the boys to come by and saw Dan and Matt lead out Joe for second place and dave for 6th. Which meant that we had swept the gc podium for cat 5.

It was so fun to work with those guys and be successful, everyone did an amazing job and we showed Cat 5 a taste of some real PRW tactics. Guri would be proud.

As far as other results, our girls took 1st and 2nd gc, and Nick took 2nd gc in Cat 1/2. A solid weekend for all.

Cheers,