It’s time for a quick update from your not so favorite blogger. Over the last 2 weekends the boys of TRP and I have been busy. First up was the double race weekend of Chris Thater Memorial Crit, a fast hard hilly NRC in Binghamton, NY, and the last O-Cup road race of ’08, which also doubled as the Ontario Provincial Championships.
Ryan, Pozzy and Walters made the trip to NY, with Walters racing strong as he usually does, made the break, and finished 6th in a race he previously won twice, but you can’t win’em all. Ryan and Pozzy covered the moves back in the field and rolled in a handful of seconds behind the break. I kind of missed that race this year, great money, lot’s of fans, and super cheap socks for sale on site!
I took the rest of the U-23′s up to Elliott Lake for the mini stage race/Provincial championships. our weekend opened up with a 3.5km hill climb, not exactly my forte, but I gav’er a go anyway. I was one of the last riders off, and when I got to the top within seconds I knew my time was 2nd fastest on the day, and with only 2 more riders to come in, that’s where I stayed. Keir was TRP’s next best rider only a few positions back. I must make mention of our bikes. The OCA enforced the UCI bicycle weight limit rule for the race, and I’m happy to report, my stock racing bike, the Argon 18 Gallium with full Shimano Dura Ace, and Shimano C-24 tubular wheels, PRO’s Vibe aluminium bar, stem and post my bike came in only a handful of grams away from being illegal, I’d say that’s an advantage!
Next up was the crit. Oh the crit. This is a points race for the GC, and the crit has GC points sprints every 5 laps, so you can win a few points sprints and possibly take the GC. That’s not cool. Anyway, the race was shortened due to a bad thunder storm with lightning in the previous races. I was looking for the overall, and knew I’d be closely watched. With wet roads, there were crashes left, right and center. I managed to stack it in one corner hard. I got back in, and didn’t want anything to do with the field, so Keir and I took off with 3 other riders. Some tactics were played, and a small split happened, and myself and Jeff Schiller managed to catch the break on the last lap. The boys went 4 wide through the last turn, and with my crash on the day, I wasn’t taking any chances, and had to settle for 2nd at the line with Keir in 5th. I was banged up, with a bad left hip, swollen fingers, knee, and shin.
On to the last stage in the race, and the Road Championships. This was a bit of a confusing day. There were the U23′s racing for their own title and ‘Quest for Gold’ carding for the ’09 season, then the seniors racing for their road title, and everyone racing with the GC in mind. So there seemed to be 8 races in one. All of the U23′s kept a close eye on each other most of the day. I wanted a break to roll away early with one of our boys in it, and that’s what happened. Keir was up there, and most of the ‘favorites’ of the U23′s missed it. So, they had to chase. Keir sat on the break up the road as he knew I was looking to win the GC, so he got a free ride. As the break started to crack with 2 laps to go, the gap came down. I told Keir to win the race if he could, which he did. He went solo, and I put Hunt in the chase to make sure we would catch the remaining riders from the break, which he did did a great job, once they were caught, Robertson and Hunt set me up for the field sprint and it was a TRP 1-2 on the stage and both provincial titles. Keir took his first win in style, solo, and I took the Senior mens Provincials.
In the end I won the GC, Jeff Schiller was 2nd, and Keir managed 3rd. Eric and Hunt were also both in the top 10. Right on.
Now on to Labour Day weekend. Everyone loves Windsor’s Tour di Via Italia. There’s lots of money, fans, and speed. A four man move took of rather early with race favorite Paul Martin (former Navigator Pro, and many time US Elite RR and Crit Champ). My old teammate  Joe Giulliano and I had a talk at the back and said “that’s not coming back if we don’t chase” he concurred. We got to the front and there was a TRP/Jetfuel train headed by Ryan “The Bull” Roth and soon the break was on it’s way back. I covered the first move once they were caught, and I then led the charge of the 2nd threatening break of the day, myself and 8 others gained a max of 55 seconds over the field, but it wasn’t to be, we were not working well as the laps fell off, and we got caught with 14 to go.
Ryan asked me; “Can you sprint?” – Having done a bit of work in that break I was a bit smoked, but I said “Yeah, I’ll try” he came back with a “o.k, I’m going to go with one lap to go” – “ok” was all I said.
Go he went. Ryan left us with 1.5 laps to go to be exact and big Paul Martin (the ox we chased back earlier) was pretty mad at us, so he sat on the front, the whole time Ryan was away in hot pursuit, and reached a max of 61kph (no, that’s not a typo) Timmy Lefebvre (Team RACE Masters) and I were behind looking up at Ryan, and we had to go. Ryan ended up getting caught in the last few meters by the field, 2 guys snuck by me, I was 3rd and Tim was 4th. After the race Paul Martin said something along the lines of “you guys chased me back, so I chased you back” It cost Ryan the win, but at least we got on the podium.
Monday’s race in Detroit was rather un-eventful. So, I’ll leave it at this. I was 6th, Pozzy, Hunt and Timmy were in the 13th to 16th range.
