K-Town Classic

[Andrew]

Jason and Tom were on fire again this week-end...

They repeated their performance in Armstrong by crossing the line in 1st and 2nd in the Cat 4/5 and Masters combined road race on Sunday, following impressive performances in the Time Trial and Crit on Saturday.

There were 4 BPR members in the small group of 15 lead riders who crossed the line after 94km or racing, including Tom, Jason, Joel and Michel. Mike and Andrew were a bit disappointed to be dropped by this group on the 4th of 7 laps, and enjoyed a long chat as they cruised the course with some of the other stragglers.

It will be fun to get the perspective from each of these riders as they will all have their own stories to tell. But no matter what they say, it was an impressive showing for our small team.

Special note: Our friends from Grand Forks, Anton and Frank both stayed with the lead group, and Anton was very supportive of Jason as they closed in on the last few miles, encouraging him to get to the front and have a go at taking the final sprint. Sometimes words form the right person at the right time can make all the difference.

[Joel J]

This past weekend I raced the K-town Classic TT and road race.

The TT was new to me as I have never raced anything that is done in five minutes. We pulled up to the race only a few minutes before my start time so I didn't get much of a warm up. I went very hard from the start knowing it wasn't very long, but I came to the bottom of the climb with nothing left. I was just starting to hurt when I saw the finish line. I am happy with my performance considering how "out of my element" I was in a race this short. I then rode home LBP-20 wanting to get some longer slower miles in and not wanting to risk a crash in the crit.

The road race was a bit more familiar to me and I was excited to race, yet nervous after hearing about the crashes in the crit. This time I would get a warm up in, although I was starting to feel the past 2 weeks of hard training but I felt good mentally. After the warm up and some tactical advice from Tom we headed out.

Starting out the pace was quite fast and we actually passed the Cat 3's like they were standing still. Despite the quick pace I tried to stay at the front and avoid crashing or being on the wrong side of a brake. A few times I would try and stir things up on the hill but after a few laps I decided to save my efforts for the last lap. On the last go-round I felt tired but decided to try and get away on the last Steep hill, I got a small gap on the field but the two guys I was with didn't want to stay away. After my plans for a break failed I decided to just sit at the back of our group and avoid the mess of sprinting, and just finish at the back end of the front group.

Overall I was happy to achieve my goal of keeping the rubber side down through the twists and turns on each of the 7 laps and finishing in the front group. I was however, elated to see Jason and Tom finish 1st and 2nd as well as a high percentage of BPR guys in the front pack.

Joel

[JasonK]

This was indeed the best weekend of racing I have experienced.  Over the last couple monthes I have been feeling strong and healthy have done lots of quality training and racing.  I rested Thursday and Friday before the race so I was raring to go Saturday morning for the TT.

This TT started with a flat section of 1.2 km and finished with a climb of another 1.2 km.  Either way it was going to hurt.  I stuck with my plan of taking it easy on the flat section and then laying it all down for the climb.  I was in and out of the saddle while starting the climb.  Just before the last 12% pitch I messed up on my shift coming out of the big chain ring.  Once organized I stayed seated and spun as hard as possible.  I tried standing near the top one last time but nearly fell over.  My quads have never burned this bad before.  After circling the parking lot a couple times I had to continue up Knox mountain to relieve the burn.  I was quite sure I couldn't have gone up there any faster and when we finally received the results in the late afternoon I was thrilled to have the fastest time in my category by 10 seconds. 

The crit was a much shorter course then I was use to with 4 tight corners and dead flat.  With short straightaways it seemed to take me a while before getting into a good position up front.  Shortly after arriving up front a rider went down just ahead of me.  I managed to squeeze between the carnage and the concrete curb.  I was told another couple guys also went down seconds later.  On the next lap around I nearly hit one of the people helping the injured rider.  It seemed a little crazy to be racing with an injured rider still laying in the corner.  On the next lap they finally stopped the race.  It's pretty hard on the system when riding at your max and then having to come to a complete stop.  I then found out that one of the riders involved in the crash had a head injury and was waiting for the ambulance.  As I was looking at the other rides waiting to start racing again I realized that my friend who was spending the weekend at our place was not in the group and as it turns out he was the injured rider.  When the ambulance finally took him to the hospital it made it pretty hard to get my head back into racing again.  No sooner then later things got a little crazy on the last lap but I managed to come out of corner 4 in third position.  I was out sprinted on the line and crossed in fourth position.  Top three would have been nice but I was just thankful to finish safely.  I went straight to the hospital and was told that my friend was going to be ok but they wouldn't let me see him.  (This was the same guy that got taken down in the 15 man pile up the weekend prior at UBC.)  Later that evening he walked in the door looking really rough, dirty, lots of dried blood, more road rash and a few staples in the head.  I was amazed how positive his attitude was and I was thankful his injuries were not any worse.

The weather was perfect to start the road race Sunday morning.  The race seemed to get off to a solid start as we passed the CAT 3's a few laps in.  I tried to conserve my energy as the BPR boys took care of things up front.  On the second to last lap I moved to the front and lifted the pace while testing my legs and trying to see who was feeling good and who was hurting.  We hit the last climb and my quads locked up with excruciating pain.  I was planning to attack on this climb but ended up going backwards and nearly pulled out of the race.  It felt like my quads were going to rip apart.  I managed to hold on to the group and made it down the final decent.  A couple km from the finish Anton (GFCC) came up beside me and said I needed to get up front into position. (These were really encouraging comments at this point in the race.)  My legs were still locking up but I started to work my way towards the front.  The last two km were a slight uphill and my legs seemed to be coming around.  Nearing the finish line the pace slowed slightly and I was looking around to see who was going to make the first move.  Finally one of the younger riders jumped and I waited a few seconds to see you was going to respond.  At this point we were still a good ways from the line.  No one else seemed to go so I made my move and jumped as hard as possible.  I kept looking down at my rear wheel but didn't see anyone there.  I looked behind me and confirmed that I was on my own.  I've seen too many guys lose races at this point so I kept digging deep while looking over my shoulder.  I crossed the line first with Tom (BPR) just behind.  What a great feeling!  I've had some good race results prior but never before have I crossed the line first.  Definitely the highlight of my cycling career to date!

Thanks so much to all of you that helped me out that day to cross the line up front!

[JasonK]

I just noticed that we can upload photo's!  Here is a picture taken of the crit.

[Allyson]

What an incredible report!
Well done on a challenging race! Look forward to hearing about more of your races.
Please, please, please stay safe out there, everyone!!!!
Ally

[GinnySellars]

Great racing BPR!

I think the major difference between bike racing and triathlon, is that you have to GO in a bike race whether you feel ready or not when the pack goes. In endurance, draft-free triathlon, you can call the shots, and work hard when you feel ready, and break and re-fuel when you need to. The rapid change of pace from all out, to cruising along in the pack is probably exciting, but a real mindset change for some of us.