Bow RR - Mens Cat 4 - August 5 - Brian Andersen
Brian Anderson – 15 +/-
Alex Dossin – 19
Geoff Martin – 20
Oscar Jimenez – 53
Jay Robbins – 55
David Symmes – 58
There were close to 100 starters for the 4 laps around Bow under perfect weather conditions. With the new hill, my computer showed a total of 4100 ft of climbing-a good workout for the legs. Geoff decided to test the field on the first climb and was joined by around 5 others in a break. I stayed near the front, and some other NEBC riders did some blocking. A few of the major teams were represented in the break, so there was not a big chase, but the long downhill sections favor the momentum of a pack.
At the beginning of lap 2, the break was caught except for one rider. Geoff was fairly spent, but was able to hang on. The main pack stayed together, but there was a lot of attrition off the back. I remained near the front, and was doing fine on the climbs.
On lap 3, the pace up the climbs increased, and there was more attrition off the back. We were getting reports that the one guy in the break was increasing his lead to one minute, and the pack was not putting on an organized chase. At this time, myself and Alex were the only riders in the front of the pack. There were other teams that had more riders in the pack, I saw at least 4 northeast cycling riders, but no attempt at an organized chase.
On lap 4, I jumped on the wheel of an attack by a rider at the front of the pack on the KOM climb, but we were not able to get a significant gap. On all the previous climbs, the main pack came back together fairly quickly after the top of the climb, this lap was no exception. There was a group of around 20 – 30 that stayed together for all the climbs, and no one was able to break away, so it was clear that we were going to have a field sprint for second place. At this point, the lone break had close to 2 minutes.
The pace picked up on the decent into the finish, with lots of the usual jockeying for position. There were attempts to break away, but we were an angry mob at 300m to go. There was ambiguity as to where we could expand to the full road, with some riders going over the yellow line, others waiting, resulting in a pile-up with about 200m to go. I just missed the crash just as I was winding up for the sprint, but it slowed me down. Alex and Geoff got caught behind and trickled into the finish line after me.
If you look at the official results, you will not see my name, that’s why I say above that my position was 15 +/- since I am not listed. Not sure how they missed me, had my numbers on was not in a clump of riders. I let Chuck know, but results tend to get locked down and do not change. I know I was there.
Geoff looked up our solo winner and found that he was a junior aspiring pro. He was a mid pack finisher in the Tour do l-Abitibi in Quebec in July, a 9-day stage race that was won by Taylor Phinney-son of you know who. Geoff felt better about not being able to keep his wheel after reading that.