Hi everyone. There was Masters racing this past weekend up in the Cowichan Valley. On Saturday there were a couple of hillclimbs. The first, a 600 metre sprint climb was in Mill Bay on Saturday morning, with a longer 9 k climb up West Shawnigan lake Rd / Coldstream Heights in the afternoon. The sprint drew a small group, with riders starting every minute. It is a lung buster, but a good warm up for the Shawnigan Lake climb. The longer climb attracted a few more participants, which saw the racers head off in an Australian Pursuit format in age groups. Since I was starting with only one other guy in the 40s we were not able to track down all of the riders in front of us but we had a good strain ride up the climb. All of this work was in preparation for the road race on Sunday near Maple Bay.
The Maple Bay RR course is a 16 km loop near Lakes / Herd / Maple Bay roads. Again, the format was Australian Pursuit. This time though we had a slightly larger group to start with including Ryan and Vinko from the 30s. Wheelers were represented on this day by Mick B and Marcel R. Even though we set a ripping pace, averaging just over 38 km/h over the 65 km course, we finished about 1:45 behind the leaders. Hugh Trenchard set a blistering pace up the Maple Bay hill each lap, and it required some organized chasing to reel him back in. Overall it was a good, hard weekend of racing, in beautiful weather.
This coming weekend includes a 16 km time trial in Shawnigan Lake, followed by a road race on Sunday. The wheelers are looking at fielding a strong contingent in the 40s group including Mick B, Eugene H, Stephane T and Marcel R. The plan is to reel in all of the racers who start ahead of us, and then battle for the victory.
See you out on the roads.
Mick
Maple Bay Masters Road Race
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