So I hope I don't always have top get hit by a car to get a result, cause doing well shouldn't hurt that much.
We headed off to Niagara this weekend, to contest the ever arduous Effingham escarpment to do battle in the Niagara Classic.
As a true spring classic should be, Niagara did not live down it's true classic nature. We woke up to 8 degrees Celsius, rain and wind, not to mention the tortuous bite at the end of the Effingham climb.
Last time I was there I won the race as a S3. I was hoping to repeat the same magic yesterday and I almost did, finishing second in what was not a great day on the bike.
Plan was Kevin H was going to go in the early break and win the KOM. So the early break went off in about 30 seconds, Kevin rode well and dominated the KOM competition, giving us a glimpse in the brilliance of this upcoming young gentleman.
I would love to say that I was able to sit on since Pete M had manged to sneak away in the chase group, but as with racing in Ontario, the field was kind of scattered all over the road and I think most guys had to do their share of work since the winds were fierce and trying to sit on can lead into some pretty taxing gap closing.
I sensed some urgency about midway through the race when I knew that the 10 guys up the road had been there since km 1 and thought I should make it up there to reinforce the effort.
I tried to go across with Nathan Chown and did so closing the final bit on Effingham but I really pushed it up the climb and think that I pushed a little too hard cause I felt the nuclear explosion go off inside my entire body.
We were eventually joined by the rest of the pack, a front group of 7 stayed a minute ahead. I then attempted to go across a second time with Alex Boghal from Mazur and another guy, we rotated through and these guys were dropping me and I thought my day was over. We were caught by Ryan Roth's group and we started going full gas to catch the leaders again. and again I was getting gapped and dropped, I again thought the race was over. I felt awful and I was freezing cold, my neck was killing me, I couldn't feel my arms or my hands and I thought about abandoning. I slapped myself in the face ..."don't be such a wimp...you've ridden in worst conditions..you are a hard ass"...that worked. I had spit slathered all over my face, it was disgusting, I was not in a good place, I still felt awful but contented myself to believe this is how it should feel. We caught the lead group it was all back together, I rolled over to Kevin and told him that I was really messed up, I was done, I was cooked, I couldn't do anything more.
Peter Morse attacked, it took a little bit for him and two others to get caught, everyone looked sluggish...I attacked...thinking that there was one lap left...for some reason I thought that we were doing 20km laps, when they were actually 12km. No one came. I had my gap, I went for it, as I started to crest the hill it sunk in that I had one more to go...shit. Another guy was closing on me, I sat up and waited for him at the top of the climb, I figured that both of us could stay away. The cheeky bugger rode right through me and I could not close the gap and he was much bigger than me and just powered away on thew descent, good on him for taking the opportunity to win like that. I held second place as Bryson B joined me in the final few km and I took second and Bryson rounded out the podium in 3rd.
So Jet Fuel results
Derrick 2nd
Bryson 3rd
Kvin Hazzard-1st KOM competition
Things are coming together nicely. I'm recovering from Friday's escapade, although my neck hurts a lot in the morning.
Tasha came 2nd in the race and 2nd in the KOM...She is riding extremely well, and her form is really building up. I can't wait to see the full effect very soon.
I'm really glad to see Kevin set for the race with a clear objective and complete it to perfection, that's what racing is about.
Tash's race report and photos to come.
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