Amino-Vital Downsview

Lined up for the Amino-Vital Bicycle Race in Downsview on Sunday with a limited squadra. Joey G, Pozzy and myself were set to battle without the likes of Andrew who has hung it up for the season, Josh who may be at the bike show in Montreal and Bucker who is trying his luck in the mud at the Provincials.

Race went off fast with most of the Ontario regulars present with the exception of Ital who have had their manager suspended and were therefore conspicuously absent. Former "boy in blue" Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) was in town, adding to the mix.

Once the dust settled a decent break which included Mikey Moore (Gears), Eddie Maset (Pavan), Arnold Marion (RJ), Heath Cockburn (La Biccicletta) and our own Pozzy checked out to a 45 second advantage, presumably not to be seen again. The remains of the peleton were active but nothing stuck until myself and Jason Valenti (Coach Chris) rolled off the front with ten to go and eventually bridged the gap to the break giving JetFuel/Sympatico two men. After scooping a $60 prime the JetFuel duo countered moves and rolled through the line trying to line up the finishing gallup. With one lap to go Marion a new face to the Ontario scene attacked on the hill and immediately opened a gap. Pozzy flew to the front and began to reel the German rider in but with no help and fried legs, it didnt happen. Moore led out the sprint and Heath and I came around for the podium.

So, another second place (my 4th of the year), dissapointing but nonetheless a good little race to wrap the year up. Special thanks to Craig Fagan for salvaging something of the Corsa race, hopefully it will be bigger and better next year.

results

September 18, 2005 - Downsview Park Toronto, ON.
Open Results - 66.5 km - Average Speed 42.16 km/h

1 74 74 MARIAN, Arnold GERMAN 01:34:39
2 LEFEBVRE, Tim JET FUEL COFFEE
3 COCKBURN, Heath LA BICICLETTA - J LINDEBERG
4 VALENTI, Jason COACH CHRIS.CA / ALL SEASON SPORTS
5 MOORE, Michael GEARSRACING.COM
6 MASET, Eduardo PAVAN CYCLING CLUB
7 POZNIAK, Mark JET FUEL COFFEE RS1E @0:27
8 LEFEBVRE, Dan GEARS RACING.COM RS1 @1:15
9 WAKEFIELD, Sean RIDE WITH RENDALL
10 WIEDITZ, Thorben PAVAN CYCLING CLUB
11 BERRIDGE, Matthew INDEPENDENT

Full results on pedalmag.com

Read on »

More thoughts on the GPSF

As Buck noted, the number of starters at the San Francisco Grand Prix was certain to double that of the finishers, if not more...and the race known as the "toughest one-day race in North America" certainly lived up to its reputation as being a leg breaker. And a back breaker. And an arm breaker. Yes, you heard right - your arms get pretty tired of yanking on the handlebars by the end of the 4.5 hour race. Have a look at any of the photos and you start to think that the Governor of California ("The Governator" was by far the best T-shirt we saw all weekend) himself might be able to ride the San Fran race not too badly by simply using his arms!

The race started out the same as last year, with a few super quick start-loop parade laps at 50-odd km/h, and then a fast transition into the first rolling climbs of the course. The legs felt good, but similar to last year it was quite cold and damp at the start. It is always a guessing game when it is cold like this - dress too warmly and you run the risk of overheating like crazy when the sun comes out (as it did last year after 1/2 of the race); dress too light, and you ride around shivering and using up extra energy to stay warm...especially bad for the muscles that need to turn the pedals around. This year I think even us cold-hardened-Canadians were riding around freezing a lot of the time in the first half of the race, and for myself it showed when I started to feel the beginnings of cramps in my legs for no apparent reason only a couple of laps in. I thought, "great, the race might be over before we even get to go hard". I babied my legs for a couple more laps, and they eventually started to come around.

Myself and Andrew were especially trying to save valuable strength each time up the steep walls of Filmore and Taylor streets, but this might have been our downfall. Last year this was certainly the race-tactic of choice since the real efforts needed on the climbs didn't come until very late in the race, when the early break started to slow down and come back to the main bunch. At that point you knew that you had to be ready for the $#!@ to hit the fan, so to speak. This year we thought we had things well in hand, riding tempo (in other words, just a %-point below full-tilt in our 39x28 gearing!) up the climbs with almost all of the big-hitters and San Fran GP winners from previous years - guys like Horner, Hincapie, Rodriguez, Dionne, etc. However, in this year's edition, the early breakaway group which established itself on the first lap caused a stiff reaction in the main field, keeping the pace quite fast for the first three big laps. A very untimely-for-us split happened farther ahead on the climb on the third big loop, leaving the Jetfuelers and lots of the big-shooters in the main group dangling about 30 seconds to 1 minute back for the next few laps. Going ballistic for a lap and closing the gap solo wasn't really something we had planned on (and it didn't exactly work out so well for Rodriguez and Dionne later either, but they made valiant efforts nonetheless), so we just had to be patient to see how things unfolded.

Out of that front split, a chunk of riders stomped their way clear, and a large number fell back. The leg-breaking effects of all of the climbing was taking its toll, and there were riders all over the course at this point in many different groups, breaking-up and re-forming all the time. Andrew and I just rode cleverly for the last several laps, making sure we didn't miss anything else going away on the climbs. At this point we knew the front of the race was gone, never to be seen again, but we wanted to keep any remaining dignity we had. Plus, all of the physical difficulties aside, this San Fran course is truly one of the most the fun and technical road race loops I have ever done, and the screaming hordes of fans on the climbs make it even more epic. So, in the closing laps of the race, we just gutted it out for whatever scraps were left, and tried to enjoy the suffering as much as we could. I made one last decent effort in the last 3 km to get to the front of our group (there was still going to be a sprint for the last of the money placings) but then in the last corner discretion had to be the better part of valour when I got chopped by a particularly frustrated Canadian Webcor rider, and ended up 35th. Not terrible, but next year hopefully we can enjoy the suffering from the front group.

Many thanks to Dave, Kevin, Johnny, Eric and his great family, Mark and Alison, Rod, Tracey, and everyone else behind the scenes for making such a great weekend possible.

photos from SF
I posted a few more photos from San Fran into our SF/GP Gallery

Read on »

Recap Grand Prix SF

Well, it was as hard as we all thought it would be. The 5th edition of the GP San Fran ended up much like last year-- about 150 starters, and only around 40 finishers. I'm sad to report that Zach, Mark or I wern't amongst them. Josh and Andrew had a little harder time this year, but still managed to cross finish line with a sigh of relief and ended their seasons on a high note.

This years "SF/GP" started out a little faster, with a very big group getting away. Most of the riders from the early break got dropped and caught, but there were a few that managed to stick it out for the win. Fabian Wegman of Gerolstiner, John Lieswyn of Health Net, and Jason McCartney of Discovery--who's turning into the stud of SF, after his KOM win and near solo victory last year. Jason took the KOM this year as well. That guy looks euro skinny after his first season with the Disco boys.

I guess Mark, Zach and I can take some consolation in the fact that TDF super star Ivan Basso was in our gruppeto when the officials told us to pull over and stop.

Look for a few more closing thoughts from Andrew or Josh tomorrow or the next day. Untill then here are a few more pictures from today:

more GP SF photos



You can see all our live race day photos in the previous post, and our buzznet account at cyclingteam.buzznet.com

Read on »

Grand Prix SF LIVE!

GP SANFRAN Photo Story Follow the team and the GP San Francisco live on Sunday Sep. 4, 2005. Photo feed will start at 10AM PST, 1PM EST. Plus we will be partnering with pedalmag.com to provide phone in updates from the caravan. Key info Start 1PM EST Sunday September 4/2005 Buzznet link cyclingteam.buzznet.com Pedal story pedalmag.com MANAGER'S MEETING UPDATE The team car will line up in position number 10 tomorrow. One spot ahead of HealthNet and 9 spots behind Symmetrics--who landed the coveted number 1 spot in the Caravan. The race will have a slight variation this year with the finish line being slightly repositioned, other than that it is the same course. In the manager's meeting, Dave got to sit beside a late arriving Bjarne Ris.

Read on »

Arrived in Palo Alto

September is here once again and to finish off the season with a bang we are racing the San Francisco GP this weekend - the toughest one-day race in North America. Somehow for these events the team always seems to find great digs to stay in, and this weekend is no exception. Until Tuesday we are staying half-way up what is the quintessential Bay area climb: Old La Honda. From the 'guest house' that we're in there is a beautiful view out over Stanford below us.

The funny part is that training here in the spring each year, riding up Old La Honda, I would always look at the place that we're in and wonder what it would be like to live there; and now I'm living it. The guest house is a converted stables, first build in 1920 and converted in the '40s. Up here you would never guess that just below is one of the bigger cities in the US; in the silence you can hear the rustling of the trees and smell the dampness of the woods. Sitting having breakfast I'm watching the cyclists climbing Old La Honda and wondering what it's like to live up here.

more photos
Here's one of our photo feeds from the GP SF trip...



» We also partnered with pedalmag.com for live coverage and photos from the caravan on race day

Read on »