Catching up with last month's adventures...
At the beginning of August, a Nine2FivePro contingent made their way to the Catskills again for another racing adventure. On the way, Gerald and Charlie found themselves as part of a parade when they took an exit to find food and gas. And everybody managed to find their own meandering way to the rental house due to the "creative" nature of each GPS.
Everybody made it to the house the night before the race started, so the morning of the time trial was relaxing, giving everyone a chance to decompress after a long drive the night before. Coffee aroma filled the air, and plenty of oatmeal was made to fuel up for the Windham time trial.
The shakedown after the time trial had Charlie finish on top of the Cat-3 podium, squeaking out a win by 16 seconds. After going out way too hard, and taking a bit of a breather after 3k, he found his tempo, for the rest of uphill part of the course to the turnaround. After making the turn it was all about spinning to the finish. Greg finished up 9th, putting another N2F guy in the top-10. Caroline rode the women's open time trial to a 2nd place. Two podium places for Nine2FivePro was a good start to the weekend!
Stage 2 was a circuit race with one punchy climb of about 2km...enough to hurt for a bit, but not quite enough to make any significant splits. Nigel jockeyed a couple times for the KOM points, while Greg battled for the sprinter jersey points. In the last lap, after going for the sprint points, Greg made an opportunistic move to sneak away with another rider. With power in numbers, the team tried to give him a fighting chance by neutralizing any chase efforts. But the pack was too keen to contest the uphill run-in to the Windham ski centre. At 15k to go, Greg was brought back into the pack. With the pack all together Charlie thought it was a sure thing he would start the last stage in yellow, but that wasn't going to happen without a speed bump. At 10km to go, Charlie had to pull over to "manually" shift by pulling his chain down the cogs, as his rear mech had gotten stuck on his sprockets, a product of fitting a "Catskills cassette". A hard chase back to the pack, and a short and fast finishing climb to the finish, the pack finished all together.
Caroline rode in the women's Cat 3/4 women's field for the circuit race, battling hard to hang on for the first lap. She hung tough to finish off her race, and had her domestique-husband to take care of her after the race, after he cleaned up from his circuit race and went out to support her.
A couple days of racing complete, and we were ready for another root-vegetable extravaganza courtesy of top-chef Gerald. Apart from providing the awesome dinners each night, Gerald also served up some sweet pre-race tunes as team-DJ.
Stage 3 was the Queen stage, with an early hard climb, a rolling middle section, finished off with the infamous climb of Devil's Kitchen. Rolling out for a long day in the saddle, Charlie found Hans' steady wheel to follow for the first 20km, while a breakaway snuck up the road, the team content to gamble that the long day and brutal final climb would be too much for the breakaway. The break's lead grew fast, and mid-way through the race time checks weren't available as the lead car was out of radio range. Mid-race Nigel, Gerald, and Charlie had a brief stop to heed the call of nature before the first KOM, with Nigel doing great team work to pace Charlie back onto the group.
With 20km to the base of the Kitchen, it was time to begin the chase. First, friend of the team, Andrew Kruger was at the front setting a tempo in front of Charlie. He was in Catskills looking for a hard workout. After he pulled off the Front, Nigel came to the front and lit it up, chasing at 40km/hr right into the base of Devils. This brought back most of the break, apart from a lone rider who stayed away until the finish to take the stage win...Chapeau! The pack hit the final climb, and it was time for business. After hanging tough for a K or two, Charlie came unglued from the front runners, and had to settle into his own tempo to the top. Over the top, and an alliance formed with riders around him, he chased to the finish to try to hold on to a top spot in GC, finally finishing up 8th overall.
Greg was the next finisher after having a tough go on the final climb being over geared, while Nigel grovelled in after his massive chase effort before the climb. Gerald had suffered a flat mid-way through the stage, but still finished off his tour of Catskills, while Caroline was cheering us on on the Devils Kitchen, collecting evidence of our pain and suffering.
With that, another Catskills was wrapped up, with plenty of good racing and good times. All that was left was to pick up some tasty brews to bring home.
Big Thanks to the TOC organizers for another awesome edition!
We had a big contingent out for the annual Preston Street Criterium. Adam lined up in the Master 2/3 field and had a strong finish to stay in the pack in a race that averaged 40km/hr.
Darrell and Graham page lined up in the Senior 3/Junior race. Juniors always race aggressively, and this one was no different. Unfortunately, this race saw Nine2Five's only mishap of the day, with Darrell having to call curtains on his race after he overcooked corner one and went into the barriers. He escaped from the crash relatively unscathed, looking like more of a boxer from the scrapes and cuts he sustained to his face. But that didn't stop him from taking all the awesome photos below.
In the elite race, we had our strongest team yet, all motivated after having a good showing at the Bill Patterson challenge on the Tuesday leading up to the race. Warren made the break, which had most big teams represented, so it wasn't long before the break lapped the field. After that the game plan was to keep Warren near the front, remain attentive so his breakaway companions didn't slip away off the front again without him.
The officials finished the pack a few laps before the break, so we focussed on helping Doug stay near the front to contest the sprint for places 8 through 10...the leftover prize money spots. Into the second to last corner, and Doug was in the top five, and even after the front of the group lost some momentum, he still had enough to grab 9th place, 2nd in the bunch sprint.
After that, the breakaway was left to duke it out, with Warren being our sole representative. There were a lot of strong riders in the break, but Warren still put in an attack with a lap to go. However, cramps set in and he was left to ride in behind the sprint to take 7th place, a solid performance from him and the team.
Thanks to all the Nine2Fivers out cheering....Jake and family, Rich and his crew, the SpokesForFolks gang, along with Duncan and all the others could be heard providing encouragement all over the circuit. We'll see y'all out next year!
Pack tackling Pink Lake Climb. Photo credit goes to Doug Corner from Bike Race Ottawa
Group photo for winning team. Photo credit goes to Doug Corner from Bike Race Ottawa.
On Sunday the team had a good showing at the Calabogie Classic Road Race, which was held at the Calabogie Motorsports Park, and was organized by Cycle Logik. Nine2FivePro had a lot of representation in a host of categories.
Graham Page lined up in the Elite 4 field. After 56km, his race came down to a bunch sprint for the line, and in the mad dash to the finish Graham came home in 11th place.
Janine and Caroline rode in the Master A women's field. Their category was combined with the Elite 3 and Junior women's fields, making a pack of 30 riders. Nine2FivePro hung on for as long as they could, but the accelerations in the pack eventually became too much, and they found themselves distance from the bunch.
Caroline did the brunt of the work in her group behind, while Janine rode solo to take the last podium spot in her category. Both rode strong and finished off the race. This is still early days in their racing careers, as it was only Janine's second road race, and Caroline's first. So kudos to them.
In the Elite 3 field, Darrell and Sam represented for the team. Their category was combined with the Junior men, to make a 45 man strong field. The race was aggressive, something Darrell noticed compared to the Elite 4 field he raced in last year. Juniors love to attack, and eventually a group mainly composed of juniors went up the road. However, a couple category 3 riders had snuck into the move to claim the first two Elite 3 podium places.
Darrell and Sam finished in the pack, 13th and 20th respectively in their category. Darrell had found himself boxed in; an easy thing to happen given the twisting nature of the car track, and so was unable to take part in the bunch sprint. And Sam rolled in to the finish pleased to have got some racing miles in his legs.
Racing on sleep deprivation and new-daddy syndrome, Adam Freed lined up in the Master 2 field. They had to tackle 15 laps of the track for 76km. A group of three went up the road in his race to take the podium, while Adam hung on to finish in the pack; a respectable effort from him!
Gerald stuck to his plan in the Master 1 field, to hide in the pack, keep position, and have a good dig in the sprint. A break was still away late in the race, but the Nacsworld.com/Norco team brought it all back together for their fast finisher and current 40+ National Champion, Steve McKee. Gerald's consistent winter training paid off, as he was able to pull off a 9th place in the dash for the line.
The Elite 1/2 race started out extremely aggressive, with lots of attacking. The team rode really well, marking moves and making their own aggressions. Doug and Charlie tried to make it into the usual early breakaway, while Warren, Greg, and Greyburns (Andrew) marked moves and chased down dangerous breaks.
Eventually a break did go up the road. Unfortunately, it was at a time when the team was taking a bit of a timeout, with a lot of us coming to grips with the fact that there was still an hour-and-a-half left of racing, when it had already been a full assault from the start. The move didn't seem too dangerous at first, as it didn't have a lot of guys.
However, a counter-move went up the road with some horsepower. Greyburns latched on to the counter-move, but quickly paid for it, and had to drop back to the bunch. And once the front break had reinforcements, they weren't going to be seen again until the end. Doug made some strong accelerations in an attempt to pull a group free, containing himself and Charlie, but the pack kept gobbling them back up.
With 6 laps to go, Charlie attacked from the bunch and bridged to Andrew House, of the CoachChris team, bringing with him a couple other riders. The four riders quickly formed an alliance in a bid to steal some of the lower places, cooperating well to distance themselves from the bunch and pick up riders who had been dropped from the breakaway. Eventually their group began to shatter, as the efforts in the windswept course began to sink in, and the group split up, with Charlie coming in at the front of a group racing for 11th place.
A couple other groups had split off from the bunch, while Doug finished off his race by taking the pack sprint for 19th place. Greg had succumbed to cramping, not a surprise given his efforts early in the race, and so had packed it in early, while Greyburns and Warren finished safely in the bunch having done some really strong teamwork, which was the theme of the race for Nine2FivePro, and one we'll see a lot more of throughout the rest of '14 racing season.
Kudos to all Nine2FivePros, for the awesome efforts in your races, for the support on the sidelines, and for all the pictures.
Gerald arrived in town on Saturday. Unfortunately, his bike did not. However, United Airlines was quick into action, tracking the bike down like a samurai, and delivering the bike to our rental house Sunday evening. Not bad. But still too late for a Sunday ride.
This meant Sunday was a day of chilling by the pool, shopping, a few wobbly pops, and a nice meal cooked by Gerald. The tasty dinner he made got me thinking it wouldn't be so bad if his bike was MIA for a couple more days....if it meant his free time would be spent cooking.
Alas, with his bike delivered, Monday's ride had reinforcements, making us an Army of Three, hell bent on conquering the cactus strewn climbs of Apache Junction, AZ. What follows are the latest pics and vids from Monday's and Tuesday's rides. What you'll see is more of the same; desert, cactus, some gradual grade climbs, and a lots of tall rock faces.
Fred flew in late last night. Got out today for his first ride down the Apache Trail.
A few video clips from my first couple rides in Arizona. Short clips are from a ride up and over Usery pass and back into town. Longer clips are from an out and back on Apache Trail to end of the pavement and a bit of gravel. Enjoy...
-Charlie
This years Tour of the Catskills adventure could likely be described as our most civilized implementation ever. Thanks to Greyburns' organization, we had a big comfy house to stay in over the weekend. We had a hot tub, nice deck with a BBQ, lots of space to veg out, and even a foosball table!
We were rollin as a big crew, which included Me, Andrew, Gerald, Sam, JRoc, Nigel, and Duncan, with his newly minted Passport on his first trip to the US.
First up was the stage one 12mile time trial. After we rolled into Hunter to pick up our race numbers, we had some time to fuel up and pin on numbers, with Nigel coming up with the most novel number pinning approach. The shakedown from the ITT was that I finished up 4th, just off the podium (doh!), Andrew finished a couple minutes behind me, and the rest of the gang spread out through the bottom half of the riders.
Next up was a 90km stage taking in a couple really tough climbs, including the infamous Airport Road Climb, with pitches upwards of 20%. About 5km before starting the first climb of the day, my rear tire punctured. Crap! Andrew rallied the troops, and en masse, the team stopped for me like we were pros. Duncan gave me his rear wheel, and we got going again, chasing as a team to try to catch the pack. Unfortunately, we ran out of road before we hit the first climb, and when we hit the climb we saw the carnage of what the climb had done. Groups spread out all over the road, with the leaders out of sight.
Andrew and I spent the rest of the stage chasing, not giving up, and in the end kept the gap to the winners pretty reasonable, at five-and-a-half minutes. The rest of the group survived the stage, with Gerald and Sam riding together and passing dropped riders, and Duncan grovelling home, being over-geared on the spare wheel he had received from neutral support. Nevertheless, he was in good spirits, having done his part for the team.
The dinner that night probably would have had PETA banging down our doors if they knew what was going on. Ribs, chicken, burgers were on the menu....I'm sure there were some carbs in there somewhere!?!? Oh yeah, JRoc had made a delicious pasta salad. After pigging out like cavemen, it was time for a long night of chillin', watching episode after episode of Gold Rush.
After the finish of road race numero one, and having been scared by the steep climbs, we had made our way to the bike shop down the road from the start/finish to grab some new cassettes with easier gears to make sure we weren't totally screwed for the next day's crazy finishing climb, Devil's Kitchen.
The second road race saw Nigel and I go off the front early. After flatting the day before I was keen to try something crazy to make up lost time. Nigel had been directed off course the day before and was keen to make amends for that. We found ourselves at the front of the bunch about 10km in. Nigel ask if I wanted to go. I nodded, he accelerated, and with a hard push we got ourselves a gap.
For the next 10km or so, Nigel and I worked together to build our gap, which got out to a maximum of 45 seconds. After awhile Nigel found his legs hurting, his gears skipping and encouraged me to continue on without him. I made it over the top of the first KOM solo, but the long descent off of it allowed the group to get back to me.
In the pack I started my recovery mode. There I found the rest of the guys, who were also in conserve mode in anticipation of the final climb. Andrew was always well placed near the front of the bunch. And Sam, Nigel, and Duncan were all looking comfortable sitting in the wheels. Unfortunately our team was not without any mechanical troubles this day, as Gerald had a mishap that was causing havoc with his front derailleur; not an acceptable situation when touring the Catskills.
On to the final climb, and Andrew's conservation strategy began to pay off. The rest of the guys climbed past me as I began to pay for my earlier efforts, having not had the prescribed dose of hero biscuits that morning. Andrew hung tough near the front of the race going over the top, put himself into a good position for the sprint, and took out a 6th place on the stage, which is an awesome result on such a challenging parcours.
Once I finally dragged my carcass over the climb, Duncan paced me to the finish. I was lucky to have his wheel to follow. But we weren't out of challenges yet. Over the top, a storm started, the temperature dropped, and rain and hail came falling down on us. Not fun. Gerald made his way to the finish solo, having suffered an early mechanical. We made our way back to the house to warm-up and celebrate another Catskills wrapped up.
Luckily, Greyburns' wisdom paid dividends this year, as he booked our accommodations for an extra night. So there was no need to pack up and drive home after finishing the brutal stage. Not only that, we could have a civilized brunch the next morning before heading home.
A very well executed Tour of the Catskills! Thanks to the crew for all the fun. See you all there next year.
