Elliot Lake course à étape…aux points (Anglais seulement)

 ENGLISH text only – With all of the team heading up to Quebec to take part in the last Mardis Lachine crit and do some intense training prior to the Tour of Missouri and me back at home in Ontario unable to attend due to some other commitments I headed North for the 2 day, 3 stage Elliot Lake race. Having done the race in 2005 and 2006 I knew what to expect in terms of the challenges the race provided. Stage 1 was a 3.5km TT/hillclimb up Millikin Mine Rd. I warmed up well in a light rain but was slightly concerned about traction on the steepest parts of the climb, in the past I had ridden a 53×23, standing and grinding that last 1km or so but wondered if that would be possible this time around. I was last to start and with the rain clearing I went with the same approach. I crossed the line 6min43sec later with my face coverd in slobber and breathing like oxygen was going out of style.  I didn’t know I had beaten my previous best time and wasn’t really sure I would be close given my sensations and the conditions, I but I did and also took the win in the process, making for a good morning. I road easily back to our accomodations  for the weekend, the comfortable Suite Wilderness B and B, run by Ann and Russ who were our very friendly and helpful hosts and rested up for the crit only a few hours away.

The GC for the race is calculated using a points system vs. the more standard accumulated time. I typically find this more confusing and sometimes it can make the race more negative and as a 2 sec gap and a 20min gap are essentially the same. To add to the confusion there were sprints for points every 5 laps in the crit making 6 sprints, plus the finish over the 1hr race.

Despite now having won the overall GC in this race 3 out of 3 times I have done it, I would prefer to see this format changed to time or at least have the points scale altered. In fact it’s mathematically possible to win all 3 stages and lose the overall, which to me does not make sense for me.

Anyway, it was too late to change any of that, so I duly positioned myself at the front every 5 laps and managed to pick up points in 5 out of 6 sprints. This did have the effect of making the race very aggressive and opened the door for me to attack, bridge up the solo Derek Ivey, (MCOR) stay away the last 4 laps and win the stage. I was able to open up a good points buffer on most of the field except for Jeff Schiller of the Louis Garneau team who finished 3rd on the stage and won the majority of the sprints.

All of this led into the final stage road race. The course was altered and took out a short, steep little kicker of a climb that lead to the gradual uphill finish. Now we would face a sligthly downhill finish, making things more favorable for Jeff and less so for me. Also there were more points being awarded at the end of the first lap. From the gun Jeff attacked and was quickly joined by the strong Darko Ficko and one other rider. I was near the back and could not really react at that moment. « No problem » I though, surely someone else would react to 2 of the strongest guys in the race riding away, right? Nope. We rolled easily and the gap opened. I was getting a little worried that Jeff would win the sprint, possibly leaving us tied on points so I waited as calmly as I could for the hardest climb on the course in a few km, gambling that the gap would be bridgeable. I hit out as hard as I could at the bottom and nearly made it by the top. The last bit was very hard to close and was hoping they would look back, see me and wait. Jeff finally did and I made contact. We were only 4, but with a solid, committed effort I thought we could stay out for the points or even form the winning move of the day. Instead Darko decided to start sitting on and we were caught. I had made a huge effort to get up there and it seemed a bit wasted at that time, but I just couldn’t risk relying on others to help me win the race. From that point on I was more attentive not wanting to have to pull a similar move and covered anything dangerous or more than 5 guys or so. Jump after jump began to wear me down, but I scored points in the sprint and finally got a break that I was happy with. 4 guys rolled off and built up a solid lead of 3-4min. It was not a threat to me so I just marked the closest guys to me and let the kilometers tick off. On the last lap the field finally broke with myself, Derek, Jeff and Darko forming a strong break that caught one of the early break and sprinted it out for 4th place.  I simply had to follow Jeff across the line and the race was won. A quick shower, pack up the car, podium, then the long drive back home.  Up next is the Chris Thater crit in NY and then the the big one, Tour of Missouri…

This entry was posted on mardi, août 18th, 2009 at %H:%M and is filed under Blog, À la une, Épreuve. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.