Spring Series - Murchie & Atomic Race Report

Saturday - Murchie

Before the race started, I knew it was going to be hard after we saw Will Routley (ToC Stage winner/ KOM leader) at sign on. It was my second time in the A group after successfully finishing the first one in 12th, so I had a lot more confidence going into this one. Along side me was Carsten and Rich, it would be Carsten's firstrace in the As.

The race started out at a crawling pace, but that only lasted for a lap an a bit. Two laps in the flurry of attacks started, and lasted until the break of the day was established. All the accelerations caused some pretty bad corners, one of the riders hit a cone which bounced and rolled through the group ultimately causing me to ride off the road into the gravel. I stayed upright it was no worse than a cross race. Carsten and Rich slowed up to help me back into the group which ultimately left us all in a bad spot when the group was all thinned out. A couple corners later a Glotman rider took the corner to hot and hit the deck, the peloton split in half leaving 12 of us chasing a 30s second gap to the main group. Unfortunately when the split happened Carsten and Rich were on the wrong wheel and by the time they realized it there was to big of a gap to close.

I continued on with the second group on the road. We set up a pretty organized pace line which got us back to that main group 3 laps later, By that time the break of the day was established. Dylan Davies (RTR) and Emiel De Rosnay (LB).

For the next couple laps we were at the mercy of Routley. A couple attacks tried to get away to form a chase group but nothing was established. 4 laps to go Routley rode to the front and pinned it. The group was all strung out until 2 laps to go when Routley got away with Jackson and a couple others.

Those gaps stayed that way for the rest of the race, but by that time not much of the peloton was left, only about 10 or so of us. 1KM to go there was some attacks which I was able to cover and ended up off the front of the chase group with 2 LB riders which had be out numbered in the bunch sprint, I ended up 10th, but pretty happy considering how the race played out. 32 Starters 26 finishers.

Sunday - Atmoic

Woke up Sunday morning sore and in typical spring series fashion, it was pouring rain. The start of the A was a bit smaller due to the weather and lots of the juniors racing the B's for Western Canada Games qualification. Yet again Mr Routley showed up so we all knew that with a hilly course it would be a war of attrition. First lap was pretty calm as per usual, lots of riders getting the warm up in. Lap two the attacks started and continued until Davies rode solo off the front with a good 70km to go. The next couple of laps were calm as no one really wanted to chase him down. Finally the attacks started again, the group spilt and I found myself in the chase group with Routley and 5 others. The Flugas team was out strong on Sunday, as none of them raced the previous day, but all of them quit the race at 70km after all of them missed the chase.

After the chase was established we worked well together, and were pulling 30 seconds back on Davies each lap. On the bell lap Davies was in striking distance. The attacks started again and after barely hanging on the last 3 laps I finally popped. I rode the last lap solo for 8th.

Brett

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