Soon after the start a big break went in on a gentle cross tailwind climb. Morgan and I were in it
BISSELL had 3 riders in the move and the highest placed rider as well so took a lot of responsibility to drive it. However at the start of the second climb of the day, Morgan set a wicked tempo and dropped two of their riders.
Then we settled down a bit and Burke Swindlehurst and I spent most of the climb trading off pulls while most of the rest of the guys suffered behind.
Then on the final climb Burke attacked a lot but was pretty marked. I made one counter move, but then Darren Lill countered me and got a good gap. I was left behind with Burke and Morgan, everyone else was dropped.
At this point, Burke may have been really hurting because he said that he would "not chase his friend" Darren. So we eased up a bit, not wanting to drag possibly the best climber across to Darren. This allowed for a general regrouping, but instead of working together to bring back Darren we spent the last 15 miles of the race fruitlessly attacking each other. I got away by myself with about 15km to go, but the gradual climbing turned into gradual descending and I got caught again.
Even without any real cooperation we still almost caught Darren on the line, as you can see the sprint for 2nd in the background.
But almost isn't enough, and it was still a sprint for 2nd between Burke, Pat McCartney, Caleb Farley, Rob Britton, and I. Rob had been sitting on for the entire time after the second climb so he ended up having the freshest legs and took second on the line, but I managed to use some decent tactics to play the sprint to my strengths and took 3rd despite being one of the worse sprinters on paper.
I was a bit disappointed since I think I had the legs to win, but it was still my first NRC podium so I really can't complain too much.
I also have to give a huge thanks to Lyne Lamoureux of
podiuminsight.com for her wonderful race coverage and beautiful photographs of the race. Its the next best thing to having television coverage.
BISSELL had 3 riders in the move and the highest placed rider as well so took a lot of responsibility to drive it. However at the start of the second climb of the day, Morgan set a wicked tempo and dropped two of their riders.
Then we settled down a bit and Burke Swindlehurst and I spent most of the climb trading off pulls while most of the rest of the guys suffered behind.
Then on the final climb Burke attacked a lot but was pretty marked. I made one counter move, but then Darren Lill countered me and got a good gap. I was left behind with Burke and Morgan, everyone else was dropped.
At this point, Burke may have been really hurting because he said that he would "not chase his friend" Darren. So we eased up a bit, not wanting to drag possibly the best climber across to Darren. This allowed for a general regrouping, but instead of working together to bring back Darren we spent the last 15 miles of the race fruitlessly attacking each other. I got away by myself with about 15km to go, but the gradual climbing turned into gradual descending and I got caught again.
Even without any real cooperation we still almost caught Darren on the line, as you can see the sprint for 2nd in the background.
But almost isn't enough, and it was still a sprint for 2nd between Burke, Pat McCartney, Caleb Farley, Rob Britton, and I. Rob had been sitting on for the entire time after the second climb so he ended up having the freshest legs and took second on the line, but I managed to use some decent tactics to play the sprint to my strengths and took 3rd despite being one of the worse sprinters on paper.
I was a bit disappointed since I think I had the legs to win, but it was still my first NRC podium so I really can't complain too much.
I also have to give a huge thanks to Lyne Lamoureux of podiuminsight.com for her wonderful race coverage and beautiful photographs of the race. Its the next best thing to having television coverage.
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