Photo: Keith Bayly The cross season has come and gone all to quickly. After a couple of months of racing and training it was time to head east for the biggest cross racing weekend in Canadian history. The weekend included the Canadian National Cyclocross Championships on Saturday and Aurora UCI C2 on Sunday. The racing in Alberta has been hard for me, I wasnt able to perform the way I wanted to and didnt get any results to speak of. However that was all in the plan, with the training I was doing I knew I would be on great form for the nats and Aurora and nothing else, it was hard to deal with at times when my expectations for myself were high even for Alberta events, but in the end it all payed off as you will soon read.
Going into the national championships I was proclaimed the favourite to win the Espoir race as I was supposedly the highest ranked espoir from last year who was returning to the event
This is what www.canadiancyclist.com had to say as a preveiw to the espoir event:
U23 Men
A new National champion will be crowned in the Espoir (U23 men) category in 2005 as Christian Meier (New Brunswick; Symmetrics) will not be present at the event. Per Strom (Alberta; Bicisport) is the best-seeded rider in that group so far, followed by Mark Batty (Ontario; 3 ROX Racing) and Shaun Adamson (Alberta; United Cycle).
I hadnt heard about this statement until after arriving at the race site for preride of the course, I could hear the whispers that I had arrived, it was kind of neat, but ultimatly I knew a win was not going to be easy especially since Christian Meier reigning national espoir champion had descided to make a last minute appearance.
The flight out to Toronto on Thursday morning was excellent. I flew WestJet and managed to get my bike on the plane without paying the extra charge. WestJet has really stepped it up, I enjoyed the 4 hour flight with plenty of leg room perched on a very comfortable full leather seat and with my own personal inflight television with 25 channels of absolutely nothing. Well that isnt quite true I managed to enjoy the Champions League highlights, a show on Discovery about building a giant catapolt and a Sienfeld, but otherwise is reaffermed my standpoint that cable tv is a wastful investment...
We (Keith Bayly and I) arrived at Peason to 15degrees and sunshine, a very welcome change from Calgary's 2 degrees and snow on the ground. After an hour drive on the famed 400 we pulled into the city of Barrie, population 115000 (I am pretty sure). The highlight of that first afternoon was a short ride that included an amazing trail in a local park. The forest floor was lit up with bright yellow, orange and red maple leaves. It was like riding through snow the leaves were so thick on the ground. An incredible experience, needless to say I forgot the camera....
Friday we took our first look at the course that would determine the 2005 cyclocross national champ. The course was located at the Hardwood Hills xc ski and mtb area a short distance from Barrie. The course was quite long at 3 km and included wide wood chip ski trails, sand piles, a bmx like track, two sandy runups, a stair runup, one set of double barriers and several strategically placed 180 degree turns. All in all a challanging course that would test not only fitness, but also technical ability.
Race day saw pouring rain prior to the start of the Elite/Espoir race in the afternoon. After a full day of use the course was dialed with the grass having turned to mud and the best lines through the courners mapped out in the woodchips. When wet woodchip trails are ridden hard they form berms in the corners, allowing for some very high speeds! I lined up in the third row and the goal for the first lap was to stay out of trouble, but stay as far up in the field as possible. Basically I didnt want to crash, just ride clean and smart and settle in for the hour of racing. I wasnt able to clip in right away from the gun and ended up in about 35 position out of 50 by the time we hit the runup for the first time. I settled into a nice pace, avoided mishaps and started to work my way up throug the field. Everything felt great, I was riding technically well, felt strong and maintained focus. I was as high as 5th in the espoir race but could not hang on in the closing laps and ended up finishing 6th in Espoir, 20th overall for Elite/Espoir. It was my best ride at a national championship to date, but not what I had hoped for. I will admit I was a little disappointed, but in the back of my mind I knew there was a chance for redemtion at Aurora the next day.... The boys from Alberta cleaned up. The most notable performances were Ryan Hopping with 2nd in Espoir, Mike Bidniak taking the Junior race from the gun, Peter Toth winning Masters B, Nick Friesen at 7th in Elite and Keith Bayly at 6th in Master A.
And then there was Aurora........
Aurora was Canada's first ever UCI sanctioned cyclocross event outside a national championship. As a result it attracted some top talent including Tim Johnson (Jittery Joes- Kalahari) who is ranked among the top cross riders in the US.
The race at Aurora really lived up to its C2 status and delivered the best course I have ever seen. Peter Wedge summed it up nicely when he said it should have been the venue for the nationals. This course had it all and definatly dropped the "mtb" feel that plagues so many of Canada's cross courses. Key things that make a cross course great that this course had were a nice long, wide start- finish straight, the 3 meter rule enforced for course width throughout, 1 natural obstacle, 1 set of double barriers, a hill that could only be ridden by about 50% of the elite mens field, lots of mud, 2 sand pits and more off camber grassy mud than knobs on my Tufos. Speaking of Tufos, run the tubular clinchers at 35 pounds and they will stick to anything. Race day conditions were less than ideal for some, but personally I was excited by the wet course, threat of more rain and 80 km/hr gusts of wind.
I did alot of mental preparation for this weekend including a great deal of imagery. Sundays race felt like I was just reliving he great race I had had in my head over and over the week leading up to it. Everything flowed, I could ride everything at full tilt, I was powering out of every corner and constantly on the attack. It was like living a dream, the closest I have ever been to flow in a competitive situation. I started out about mid pack and from that point on I was passing and working my way up the field. I ended up riding with ItalPasta-Belmire Transport rider Nathan Chown for a good part of the race until he got disqualified and had Martin from Rocky in my sights most of the day. I was as high as 9th place overall about midway through and got myself into 3rd place in Espoir with 3 laps to go. I attacked on the top of the course but the 3rd place standing was short lived as I crashed on the descent after sliding down and hitting a fencing post. I never could catch the 3rd placed Espoir again and ended up finishing in 4th 14 seconds down, 13th overall. It as a great race for me, I was a little upset over missing the podium at such a big race by 14seconds but that is racing. I came into the race with no real expectations other than to do my best and have fun and I ended up having the race of my life, it was great. Other Albertans also rode very well including Mike B taking Junior again, Keith bagging 7th in Master A, Don Fox picking up 3rd in Master C, and Nick Friesen in 11th for Elite (after crashing into a post and getting ribbon all tangled up in his wheels...oh Nick....).
Special thanks to Keith for helping me out so much with a place to stay, ground transport and some of the best race photography I have ever seen. And to Rick Thiessen for putting me through the paces the last few months and keeping me focussed.
So there you have it, the 2005 racing season is a wrap. From Alberta to Belgium to going cross eyed in TO its been a season to remember....
But its not over yet, tomorrow I will be doing the first "Alley Cat" race of my carrier and Saturday its cross country running time at Edworthy Park. Stay tuned.
Photo: Keith Bayly
Photo: canadiancyclist.com
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