Calabogie Classic '14
/On Sunday the team had a good showing at the Calabogie Classic Road Race, which was held at the Calabogie Motorsports Park, and was organized by Cycle Logik. Nine2FivePro had a lot of representation in a host of categories.
Graham Page lined up in the Elite 4 field. After 56km, his race came down to a bunch sprint for the line, and in the mad dash to the finish Graham came home in 11th place.
Janine and Caroline rode in the Master A women's field. Their category was combined with the Elite 3 and Junior women's fields, making a pack of 30 riders. Nine2FivePro hung on for as long as they could, but the accelerations in the pack eventually became too much, and they found themselves distance from the bunch.
Caroline did the brunt of the work in her group behind, while Janine rode solo to take the last podium spot in her category. Both rode strong and finished off the race. This is still early days in their racing careers, as it was only Janine's second road race, and Caroline's first. So kudos to them.
In the Elite 3 field, Darrell and Sam represented for the team. Their category was combined with the Junior men, to make a 45 man strong field. The race was aggressive, something Darrell noticed compared to the Elite 4 field he raced in last year. Juniors love to attack, and eventually a group mainly composed of juniors went up the road. However, a couple category 3 riders had snuck into the move to claim the first two Elite 3 podium places.
Darrell and Sam finished in the pack, 13th and 20th respectively in their category. Darrell had found himself boxed in; an easy thing to happen given the twisting nature of the car track, and so was unable to take part in the bunch sprint. And Sam rolled in to the finish pleased to have got some racing miles in his legs.
Racing on sleep deprivation and new-daddy syndrome, Adam Freed lined up in the Master 2 field. They had to tackle 15 laps of the track for 76km. A group of three went up the road in his race to take the podium, while Adam hung on to finish in the pack; a respectable effort from him!
Gerald stuck to his plan in the Master 1 field, to hide in the pack, keep position, and have a good dig in the sprint. A break was still away late in the race, but the Nacsworld.com/Norco team brought it all back together for their fast finisher and current 40+ National Champion, Steve McKee. Gerald's consistent winter training paid off, as he was able to pull off a 9th place in the dash for the line.
The Elite 1/2 race started out extremely aggressive, with lots of attacking. The team rode really well, marking moves and making their own aggressions. Doug and Charlie tried to make it into the usual early breakaway, while Warren, Greg, and Greyburns (Andrew) marked moves and chased down dangerous breaks.
Eventually a break did go up the road. Unfortunately, it was at a time when the team was taking a bit of a timeout, with a lot of us coming to grips with the fact that there was still an hour-and-a-half left of racing, when it had already been a full assault from the start. The move didn't seem too dangerous at first, as it didn't have a lot of guys.
However, a counter-move went up the road with some horsepower. Greyburns latched on to the counter-move, but quickly paid for it, and had to drop back to the bunch. And once the front break had reinforcements, they weren't going to be seen again until the end. Doug made some strong accelerations in an attempt to pull a group free, containing himself and Charlie, but the pack kept gobbling them back up.
With 6 laps to go, Charlie attacked from the bunch and bridged to Andrew House, of the CoachChris team, bringing with him a couple other riders. The four riders quickly formed an alliance in a bid to steal some of the lower places, cooperating well to distance themselves from the bunch and pick up riders who had been dropped from the breakaway. Eventually their group began to shatter, as the efforts in the windswept course began to sink in, and the group split up, with Charlie coming in at the front of a group racing for 11th place.
A couple other groups had split off from the bunch, while Doug finished off his race by taking the pack sprint for 19th place. Greg had succumbed to cramping, not a surprise given his efforts early in the race, and so had packed it in early, while Greyburns and Warren finished safely in the bunch having done some really strong teamwork, which was the theme of the race for Nine2FivePro, and one we'll see a lot more of throughout the rest of '14 racing season.
Kudos to all Nine2FivePros, for the awesome efforts in your races, for the support on the sidelines, and for all the pictures.
