Road Nationals

18 laps of a 10k course, with a 3k climb, that’s a 180k road race with 54k of that climbing. Sounds like a hard day, and it was. It felt like the second you crested the top of that hill, you were at the bottom again. Riders were getting dropped as early as the 2nd time up.

Racing started fast off the gun, with attacks in the opening kilometers. There were a few small groups that rolled off the front, but all came back, and attack after attack gaining a few seconds here and there before more riders would go. Ryder Hesjedal of the Discovery Channel cycling team (he has a team mate named Lance something) wasted no time in putting the hurt on, with a hard attack on the 3rd lap that split the field. It came back together allot smaller.

On lap 6 or 7 the big split happened that would pretty much define the rest of the race. The leaders, Andrew Randell (Jet Fuel Coffee), Ryder Hesjedal, Christian Meier, Svein Tuft, Jacob Erker, Corey Lange, Eric Wolberg (Symmetrics), Dominique Perras (Quebec), Chris Isaac, (Ital Pasta/Transport Belmire), Peter Wedge (Kona/Les Gets), Bruno Langlois (Jittery Joes), Greg Reain(Stevens Cross), Ryan Roth (Gears Racing)and Frank Parisien (Espoirs Laval) would all stay out, and end up being the "winning break" of the day, with the pack blown to pieces, all over the place.

After Frank Parisien took a 3 lap flyer, and Symmetrics brought him back, Ryan Roth took a flyer with 2 laps to go, and only got caught on the last lap, by Frank again, who seemed to be riding a motorcycle today, instead of a bicycle. Roth ended up cracking after a super effort, and Frank rolled in for the win, with Eric Wolberg, and Dom Perras taking silver and bronze.

Andrew rode awesome despite "feeling horrible" with stomach problems, he ended up 7th on the day, a pretty good follow up to last years 5th on the same course.

Pozzy was riding well, but luck wasn't on his side as he flatted off the main field (which was very low in numbers) and couldn't chase back on. I felt for him, he had some legs today!

Zach raced hard, but came up short on the climb. He hung in till the bitter end, and guess with whom? Alex Cloutier, his track rival. It was funny to see Canada's best 2 pursuit riders in a 180k road race only seconds apart, just like Track Nationals last week.

As for me, well, I came here well prepared, had a good week of training, and even showed some great power and speed at CHIN, but I also came up short, with stomach problems as well, and just all around crumby legs. But I've had a good season, and one bad race shouldn't slow me down, the Tour of Altoona is coming up in 2 weeks, and I'm looking forward to testing out the GC legs, as I tend to go faster as the days go by.

NOTE- I'm a breakfast lover, and pride myself on being able to pick out the best Maw and Paw bacon and eggs joint in town (a trait handed down from my Father) but this morning, Andrew commented on something tasting funny, and Pozzy concurred, sure enough, Andrew and I both had bad stomach problems. OOPS! Next time, I'll let Andrew pick.

Official brief results -
1. Francois Parisien (QC) Espoirs Laval
2. Eric Wohlberg (BC) Symmetrics
3. Dominique Perras (QC) Kodak Sierra
4. Ryder Hesjedal (BC) Discovery Channel Pro Cycli
5. Peter Wedge (NB) Kona Les Gets
6. Ryan Roth (ON) Gearsracing.com
7. Andrew Randell (ON) Jet Fuel
8. Greg Reain (ON) Stevens Racing

Up next OBC Grand Prix, I love racing in Canada’s capitol, and this year it's a stage race, so tune in next time for the post race BLOG.