Spring Series - Bradner

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aruss
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Spring Series - Bradner

Post by aruss » Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:14 am

Let us rewind to March 17th and a beautiful spring day in the Fraser Valley. Eugene, Easter Brown (Ian) and myself (Andrew) boarded the first sailing to the continent excited for the day of racing. The course for the A category would 11 laps of a 12 km'ish course featuring rolling hills, scenic fields and some high-speed corners. Bradner is a course suited well for a break, the aforementioned rolling hills, corners, and lack of sight lines all contribute to a group sticking. Our plan before the gun was to get as many of us into the early move. Moves started straight away with each of us involved. As we approached the start/finish for the first time the deciding move took form over the crest of the 1km gradual climb. I found myself with Brendan Armstrong of TRT and young Thomas Schellenberg of Smart Savy. Eugene had unfortunately just missed this early move. The three of us rolled well for about a lap when we could see the peleton closing back in. However, before the catch was made two riders (Alex Amiri of Glotman and Sherwood Plant of Langlois Brown) jumped across the gap to join us. With representation from all the major teams our group of 5 was very motivated and the peleton sat up. From there on out it was a rolling pace line that gradually took its toll on the group of 5. Behind us Eugene and Ian reported absolute manic in the bunch as attack after attack happened to try and form another small group to come across. It seemed everyone was into chasing things down and nothing materialized to join the front. With two laps to go fatigue began to show and both the TRT and Langlois riders were dropped from our front group. When word of this traveled back to the bunch TRT and Langlois made a huge effort to chase us down. Alex, Thomas and I worked very well together over the closing laps to give ourselves the buffer we needed on the finishing stretch to play out the sprint. What was once a 3:30 gap had shrunk to 30s by the finishing straight. My best card was to go earlier than anticipated to try and catch the other two off-guard. I uncorked all that was left with about 300m to go but didn't have the juice for it to stick. Alex took the win followed by Thomas and I. Eugene and Ian did well covering moves and counter attacks to place within the top 15. All-in-all and great trip to another spring classic.

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