Robbs Ride 2011

Some background: It is a three day ride mixing your choice of touring or racing. Day one this year was a circuit around GF, Day two GF to Osoyoos on a southerly route through the States and the final day back from Osoyoos to GF along Hwy 3. Days one and three have a yellow jersey award, days one and two a green jersey competiton and day three a polka dot jersey for the first rider up the anarchist climb out of Osoyoos. Above all it is a great chance to get some miles in your legs through some beautiful scenery and enjoy the feeling of tired legs while sharing a few beers at the end of each days ride.

My goal in riding was to get in a solid three days of riding in preparation for the upcoming masters cycling races and learn to respond to the tactics and demands of road cycling. I also wanted to work on my high end with some efforts well above BP in order to be able to meet those same demands.

Day one started out with about 25K of easy roll out before the pace upped. As the only BP rider I rode with a group of KC riders notable for the fact that the shortest of them was six foot two! There were two sprints this day and then a race to the finish with a step 2K climb. I hung out at the front of the race staying clear of a large nervous pack there were riders of varying skills in the group and the pace was all over the place. No one except the local riders knew where the sprint points were and there was a lot of wasted energy and yoyoing back and forth. The local boys took full advantage of their knowledge and it was a little frustrating watching them jump at all the right moments to take out the sprints. I saw my highest HRs and level of effort in responding to these dumb surges and attacks, had I been a bit calmer would have had much more in my legs for later in the ride. Coming in to the end of the day we were again unsure of the route and only caught on when a six or seven man group of local riders jumped out a couple of K from the end to deliver their designated climber to the bottom of the hill with a few hundered meters lead as the climb began. I chased hard up the hill catching and passing all but the lead rider and one other strong rider from Vernon who rolled over the finish with me as we realised the chase was futile. (The GF rider who finished first disappeared for the rest of the weekend). For the duration of the climb I was able to maintain 12-15 beats above BP and felt like I could have sustained this pace a few minutes longer. My focus was on increasing my respiartion rate while climbing.

Day two began slowly with a border crossing that took about 30 minutes. Tom Stewart had joined the ride so it was good to have another BP jersey in the mix. By the time the group regathered, it was much smaller as many had taken the option to leave earlier and ride at their own pace. Another rider from KC, AJ had joined us and we had talked sprint tactics over breakfast planning to use everyone in a big lead out to deliver AJ to a win in the first sprint. Although we had the Kms noted we still did not know the exact sprint point and once again came up short as our lack of local knowledge saw us sprint for the wrong point on the course, about 300M short of the actual bridge that was the finish.

One more flat sprint left for redemption. Well we did not make any mistakes this time. The five of us hit the front about 1.5K out and smashed the competition. There were a couple of riders who tried to go with us and one guy who tried to push me off AJs wheel but if you weren't in the draft of the KC train you were SOL!. I was lucky to be last wheel, just hanging on to AJ, as I spotted the the sign that marked the finish took a quick look back and realised we were a hundred meters ahead of anyone else!!!!! Sat up and strolled to the line.

The next contested sprint was after a prolonged climb. I managed to get in a four man breakaway on the steepest section, during the climb I was again at the 12-15 beats above BP and was able to hold this without cracking and losing touch with the rest of this group which included Tom. My legs felt quite good after this effort and I was very happy that I had been able to go with the lead group and hold on. After the climb was a 4-5 rolling section and then the last sprint of the day. One guy jumped and the rest of us sat back not sure why until the winner of the first sprint of the day blew by having chased from the top of the climb. I managed to get onto his wheel and in a very close finish just managed to come around him and finish second earning the day two green jersey!

The end of the day was a prolonged downhill with some daredevil descending skills required on the twisting roads into the valley. It was a fantastic days riding along great roads with minimal traffic.

The final day involved the dreaded 30K Anarchist climb out of Osoyoos. There ended up only being a group of 5-6 contesting the KOM jersey for the climb. Once again a GF rider used his local knowledge to sprint clear while everyone else looked for the finish.

From the top it was 100K to go and the strength an organisation of the KC group was evident as we rolled along in either paceline or bombing the downhills. Sweeping up different groups who had left before us. From Greenwood on we had a bit of fun as I went on a solo attack for about 15K before getting caught by a small group and wound up with another bombing downhill into Grand Forks.

To sum up, an excellent three days of riding! I surprised myself with how strongly I rode and was able to sustain output for the three days. My training goals were realised and there was the extra bonus of being able to feel like a sprinter!