Spring Series Double Header - Bradner Long and Atomic

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ghomer
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Spring Series Double Header - Bradner Long and Atomic

Post by ghomer » Mon Apr 04, 2016 7:06 am

On Friday, I half-seriously hinted to Andrew Russell that a Wheeler on the podium both days would represent a successful sortie over to Vancouver for the Bradner Long and Atomic Spring Series Races. Turns out that two podiums were precisely what happened…

When we arrived at Bradner for sign-in on Saturday morning to the sight of former National Road Champ, Will Routley, I thought a podium was even less likely (ed: I cannot remember a time when I have been so intimidated by a man so lanky). Will had already won in Europe this year and has a stage win at the Tour of California on his palmares, so there was a certain amount of apprehensiveness throughout the first third of the race as he calmly sat on the back of the group, lap after lap.

In hindsight, I would say I was far too aggressive in the first two laps of the race, and I’m sure Andrew would say similarly. We were doing a lot of gap closing and flying off the front, and by three in it seemed like I was destined to DNF, getting myself into that unfavourable groove of just catching back on in time for the elastic band to stretch out of the next corner. The first hour of the race, I quit bike racing on multiple occasions, hit my max ever heart rate, and my maximum power output on the year. After a couple of more sedate laps, punctuated by the occasional attack to bring in an Andrew Russell flyer, the course began to prove decisive. Rider after rider fell of the back, with Langlois Brown riders in particular paying for their early efforts keeping the race together.

With four to go, Will inevitably attacked, and the remainder among us, myself and ARuss included, tried dutifully to bring him back. After a good lap of chasing, the race for third began (evidently there was another rider up the road who was joined by Will, news to me). The race slowed considerably, allowing ARuss and I an opportunity to plan a strategy for the tough rolling-false-flat-uphill-grade finale. With 1.5 to go, Al Murison, an ex-pat only recently moved to Vancouver from the UK, dug in and tried to go solo. With the most left in the tank ARuss, Arturo (the lone remaining Langlois rider) and I set about chasing him down, the three of us eventually forming a coherent pace-line. With Al only 30 meters up the road into the last kilo, I knew I had the legs to attack the group and make the bridge. Even after doing so much work, Arturo was glued to my wheel as we blitzed by Al, with ARuss a little further back. Eventually Arturo pulled through, and we maintained our gap on what was left of the pack. I lost Arturo’s wheel into the final kicker, and rolled in for fourth, with ARuss fifth. Great race!

Sunday’s Atomic Road Race was a different affair, notable to the writer as both the fastest and the slowest road race I’ve ever been involved in. After a first lap of soft pedalling, rudely interrupted by vicious one minute accelerations, I knew we were in for a strange one. Unfortunately for us, the initial break of the day, which formed without much of an effort, did not contain a Wheeler and after a few laps of disorganized ridiculousness, Eugene and I set out to try and reel them in while we let ARuss rest in preparation for the inevitable counter at the catch. Thankfully, Glotman had also missed the break and were willing to work too. As Emile remarked, the work that Eugene and I did to bring in the break brought the Wheelers some valuable cred on the mainland, letting the other teams know that we are a team not willing to settle for the minor places. When we caught the break, ARuss worked his magic, and forced his way into what would be the race winning break that formed just after the initial break of the day was caught. Thankfully for Eugene and I, ARuss up the road meant that our work was done for the day. With most of the teams represented in the group of seven up the road, the pace of the race slowed considerably, with fewer than five brief attacks happening during the second half of the race. I can’t speak for exactly what went down in the break, but ex-pat Al was again very active, with his activity rewarded with a deserved race victory. ARuss rolled in for fifth, and I led Eugene out for the win in the bunch sprint. Job done. Thanks again to all the sponsors for making our season possible, and for the volunteers that make these races possible.

stephane
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Re: Spring Series Double Header - Bradner Long and Atomic

Post by stephane » Tue Apr 05, 2016 8:09 pm

Awesome showing boys! Way to represent on the mainland! :)

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