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MARK STUART FROM CYCLEPATH OAKVILLE RACE TEAM

Published August 10, 2011 by REBECCA

This racing season, GPS City is sponsoring Mark Stuart from the Cyclepath Oakville Race Team. Below, Mark shares a recap of a recent race he competed in:

"On May 22, I participated in the Nith River Ontario-Cup Road Race. My final placing was 35th out of 47 participants and yet I consider it one of my best races.

This was my fourth event since upgrading to the Master 2 category, and it turned out to be quite a large field. The weather was cooperating for the first time this year and when the neutral start rolled out of the community center I was happy to be wearing my summer kit and even a dab of sunscreen.

Not having had a chance to pre-ride the course, I wasn't sure what to expect so I hung around mid-pack for the first lap of our five-lap race and took in the surroundings. The rolling hills, light breeze, and warmer temperatures made for a much different atmosphere than the previous event near Wiarton, which had been cold and extremely windy.

The group seemed a bit nervous - grabbing brakes, twitching back and forth, and so on - in part due to the fact that we were constrained by the yellow line rule (which doesn't allow riders to cross the center, or yellow line, of the road), and partially because this would be the first race of the season for many of the riders who had stayed away from the earlier events because of the poor weather we had over the spring.

Not far into lap two, the sky began to darken and I feared that the patch of thunderstorms I had observed on radar heading our way before the race were indeed going to hit us. Shortly after that, it began to rain. Raindrops of epic size and enormous quantities showered down on us. There were even a few bolts of lightning to zap us all to attention. I moved away from the riders on steel and aluminum bikes...

During this time, a few riders had rolled off the front and were allowed a bit of room to run before the group chased them down. No serious attacks were made, and everyone seemed content to just try and stay upright in one big pack.

As the rain started to let up on lap 4, another rider went off the front and was neutralized by one of my teammates. Then another went, and he managed to get a bit of a gap. I took a turn pulling at the front of the peloton, and then a strange thing happened - some open air appeared between me and the rest of the pack. Not sure what to think, I let off the gas a bit and rolled back into the fold. The pack slowed with me.

Hmmm, what to do. I figured I would try pulling the group along so we could go after the guy who had ridden away, but again I found myself rolling off the front. This time I allowed myself to keep rolling away and after I had 20m gap, I started pedaling a little harder going up the hills without making it look obvious that I was trying to pull away.

Another kilometer down the road, I started winding it up some more. The Garmin started showing some bigger numbers (in the speed AND heart rate departments) and I could see the rider in front of me getting closer. Because of the nonchalant way the group was acting, I figured that if I could make the catch, the two of us might stand a chance of staying away.
Coming up to the third corner (a 110 degree right hander) it appeared that the rider in front had stopped, which is exactly what had happened - he had fallen mid-corner. He was making no effort to get up, and the marshals were in attendance so I pedaled on unit unknown territory. If this was going to work, I was going to have to do it all by myself as my only chance for an ally was now lying on the road behind me.

Head down, and thinking abut round pedal strokes, I pushed into the wind along the rolling countryside. The odd glance back showed my gap increasing and all I could hear was Jens Voigt in my head speaking about why he goes out on breakaway. 'If I finish with the group, I have a 0% change of winning. If I go out on my own I may only have a 10% change of winning, but that is better than 0%, isn't it?'

Going through the Start/Finish on the bell lap, I was all by myself with about a 400m gap back to the group. The announcer had received information on who it was that had went off the front and I could hear him announcing my name and my team's name as I came up to the line. The race officials rang the bell at the line just for me, and the cheers of encouragement and applause were all mine. Fantastic! If I could keep this up for another 16km, it really would be proper breakaway dream come true.

Unfortunately, as anyone who watches cycling knows, the chances of a breakaway succeeding are slim - even more so for the solo breakaway. Not far unto the final lap, the data I was getting from my trusty GPS was not telling a great story. My pace had fallen off slightly, and I couldn't seem to get my heart rate to settle down into a reasonable, sustainable zone. That combined with the fact that so many people in the peloton had fresh legs from sitting in the pack all day and were wanting a sprint finish lead to the inevitable catch half way through the last lap.

I made one or two final kicks before surrendering to the fact that my time in the limelight was over. As we rounded the last few bends towards the finishing straight, things started getting a bit rough and since I knew that in my weakened state I wouldn't be a real contender for the sprint, I let off the gas and ended up rolling across the finish line at the back of the first group.

So, was it worth cooking my legs for 20km by myself, and thereby giving up any chance I had to win the sprint in the slight hope that I could stay away to the finish by myself? You betcha!"

Category: BICYCLE Views: 3277

Website: gpscity.com

Place: Oakville

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