I've been to hell and back...
So this weekend I went off too Maple Ridge for two bike races. The first was a 32km time trial. My time was 49:14 and I averaged 40km/h. I managed to place first junior.
I'm warming up here. Check out the guy in the background. He had no teeth and kept on looking over at me...
In the line up for the TT (time trial)
Getting into the trailor
About 40 seconds to the start.
Here's the start, only 32km left.
Here's the second turn around. Here I have 16 km left.
50 minutes later.... I'm doing a major warm down.
Got a new set of glasses from my coach (left).
Thought this was kind of a cool picture with the reflection.
So today was the Harris-Roubaix. Half of the race was on paved road, the other half on really really loose gravel. My coach made me race Category 1/2 which is the Pro/Elite men's race. I usually race Category 3/4 so this was a really big change. The pack was about 100 riders that included the best team in Canada (they ended up placing 1,2,3,4, Roland Green (he was the world champion for mountain bike in 2001-2002 and he's frickin' fast), and one lonesome Junior who looked like he'd just hit puberty with the pink arm warmers of his. The pack split up on lap 2 into a front pack of 40 and a rear pack of 60. I was the only one on my team who managed to stay in the front pack and it was fast! Then with 5 laps to go, I hit a sand rut and crashed down the side of the Dyke. I flipped over and all these old people came running to help me back up. They were really nice but I couldn't catch back on. Symmetrics, the best professional team in Canada, were driving the pace at about 48-50 km/h, way too fast for me to get back on to the pack by myself. So after two laps of going solo, I called it quits. That was the hardest race I've ever done but I'm glad I got the experience... sorry for that long blurb, here are some pics from today.
Me, Andrew and JP warming up
Andrew and I are at the starting line. I was the youngest, and SMALLEST guy there so I felt really out of place, and the arm warmers made me stand out.
The start
Probably one of the best street names around.
It was a fun weekend but I think what got me was the fact that I hadn't shaved my legs.... riiight. I've got some pretty good videos that I'll figure out a way to post.