MSA World Cup, Fitchburg, Road Nationals - Race Report

by Jamie Lamb

I just got back from a good 3 weeks of racing, starting with the World Cup in Mont Saint Anne Quebec, on June 25th.

After my mechanicals at nationals two weeks before I was ready to have a good race at MSA. The course was very similar to the nationals with the addition of one insanely technical descent and short steep climb. I had a great start, and went into the singletrack somewhere in the 20s, and 2nd Canadian espoir.

I guess it wasn't really my day though as I faded after the first 2 laps and was passed by my friend Matt Hadley (who had a great day to finish 31st), Andrew Watson, and Derek Zandstra. Max Plaxton DNFed after our espoir train caught him, so that left me in 6th espoir (4th Canadian) and 37th place overall. I think I started a bit too hard in the heat, as a lot of other racers were remarking that they had made an effort to pace themselves on the first few laps. There is nothing like racing a world cup though, someone is always behind you and always just ahead the whole length of the race, it motivates like nothing else. I had a huge battle with Fredric Busserriers during the first half of the race, the massive Quebec cheering squads out for him let me know just how far back he was... The course was really demanding, but in a satisfying way as every lap you got to rip some killer descents; it was motivating just to clean them. Overall I wish I could have done better in relation to the other Canadian espoirs, but I did better my 40th place finish from last year.

Next was the Fitchburg-Longsjo classic stage race in Fitchburg MA. I did this race as part of the Nova Scotia Canada Games team. We drove down in the Cyclesmith van, and stayed at a stage college. This was good we were practically sleeping at the start line, the race went right past our building one stage. Most of the guys on the team were racing Cat 3 or Junior and I was going solo in Cat 1. It was definitely my biggest Cat 1 race.

It started on Thursday with a 15km time trial. Being a mountain biker didn't seem to prepare me for the massive short term power needed to do well in this, as I had a mediocre ride to land in 81st (of 170) on GC. Friday was a 125km circuit race through the city on a 5km lap. There was a short but steep 500m hill on each lap with the finish at the top. I hung in the pack and tried to move up on the climb each lap, only to be scared off the front on the descent. I ended up finishing with the pack in 55th, and moved up to 69th on GC.

Saturday was the road race stage, it was 170 km of rolling hills with one moderate climb followed by a huge descent (we hit 96 km/h in the pack). It finished with a big switchbacking climb up a ski hill so I just concentrated on riding toward the front in case anything big broke off on the lap climb, and saving what I could for the finish. I just watched my Polar a lot of the time and tried to stay as low as possible. I hit the finish climb in about 20th, and rode my own pace (my own maximal pace...) to the top to finish 25th, moving to 35th in CG. I was totally stoked about this day, as I beat Mathieu Roy, a Canadian espoir who rides for Jittery Joes, Martin Lazarski, and lots of fast guys from Quebec/ VW and Gears.

The last stage was a brutal 50 mile crit downtown where my goal was just to maintain my GC position and further my pack riding skills. I spent a lot of time in the death march toward the back, but finished with the leaders and sealed my 35th place. Fitchburg was definatly a turning point for me learning how to ride aggressivly on the road and have confidence in big packs.

Next was Road Nationals in Kamloops BC, where I was riding with the Atlantic Cycling Centre team. The first event was the time trial on thursday. I was a bit fatigued from racing Fitchburg and all the travelling, and didn't have as good a race as I would have liked. Finishing 13th isn't so bad for a mountain biker but I wasn't satisfied. Next up was the Crit on friday night in downtown Kamloops. Our plans for the night were to work for Peter Wedge, Dustin MacBurnie, or Phil Cortes, the elite guys. My plan for the night was to get my name announced over the speakers. Symmetrics was favored to win the race and being a BC team were really aggressive. I got into a break with 2 Symmetrics guys about 10 laps to go. I stayed out for about 3 laps before being hauled back by Quebec. My mission had been accomplished... I ended up just finishing with the pack in 33rd. In the end Quebec rider Charles Dionne won it despite the enthusiasm of the BC fans.

Sunday was the event I was really there for, and it went fairly well. The road race was famous from the previous year as being insanely hard, with a 3 km climb every 10km lap, and I was ready for a race of attrition. It started out way harder than last year (so I'm told) with Ryder Hesjedal from Discovery on the front just killing it up the climb. The pack was shattering before the 30k mark. On the 3rd climb there was a big split in the strung out pack and a group of most of the fast guys (18) broke off the front never to be seen from again. Then there was my group of about 20 (15 from Quebec I would say) trying to chase for the next couple laps. After about 150k I was pretty sure I was the strongest on the climb and the group was getting smaller every time up. On the last lap I attacked once more and only Kevin Lacomb from Quebec, Phil Abbot from Alberta and Will Routly from Symmetrics could respond. We were all espoirs, and I wanted to get over the top by myself but I didn't have that much power. We were racing for 3rd. One Quebec senior caught us on the descent and provided Lacomb with a lead out (Lacomb's a good sprinter to start with) who won the sprint over Phil Abbot. I took 5th over Will Routly. I finished about 25th overall, with only roughly 35 finishers of the 160 rider start.

I've definitely had my best 2 road races in the last 2 weeks and am looking forward to the Canada Games (both Road and XC) on Aug 7-13.

Right now I'm back in NS taking a bit of rest before training hard again for the western races. I'll be racing the the provincial XC championships this Sunday.

Thanks for all your support,

Jamie

Posted by bikergrl at July 14, 2005 10:12 AM

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