Well hello there, it has been far too long! But a new season is underway and there is a lot of new and exciting things for this season!! So I will start up my blog again to try and capture every (or as many as I can) exciting moment for this year.
So let's back track a bit and see where we're at for the "new" this year:
- New Team
- New Sponsors
- New Bike
- Engaged to the wonderful Katlyn Dundas (the biggest highlight so far :) )
Yes this year I have switched team and will now be racing for Wolfpak Racing/Inception Cyclery. I am very excited about this new change and it should provide a great year/season with lots of new adventure! The team is sponsored by Niner Bikes, Honey Maxx, Clif Bar, Tim Hortons, Schwalbe and Inception Cyclery out of St. Catharines. This year my weapon will be the Niner Air 9 Carbon, I am stoked about this new bike, it should be great!!
So now to the race! Well it was a pretty cool race and went really well I think! Not being a roady or having my team there, my buddy Jon Slaughter and I decided we'd team up and be the mtb team :P
I had done this race before as a junior and almost won it, just didn't time my sprint right, so this time I knew that coming in, and was determined to get it right this time!
So we lined up for the race and of we went (no pace car like last time I did it). The first half was uneventful really, there were a few guys that jumped off the front right away but we reeled them back in I spent the first half the race trying to get use to road racing and pack riding. Tried staying in the front 1/3 for most of it, but slipped back every now and then. Put in a few pulls, played some good tactics and held in there a few times! The race realty was a trick of avoid pot holes and crashes, which there were plenty. But it all boiled down to the last lap for the bunch kick! I lined myself up for the last 500m on the front with Adam Morka by my side, we launch our attack and from behind came Nathan Chown (a season road racer) and he wedge between the two of us and blocked/edged my out of his way onto the shoulder of the road (loose gravel and ruts) where I lost my momentum and the pack sprinted, managed to get back on the road and finish the sprint and came 14th! I was pretty pleased with the result, a good start to the season I would say! It was a fair and smart move by Chown, I should have held my ground but I got nervous :P either way awsesome event and looking forward to see what I can do on the mtb circuit! Thanks to honey Maxx and Clif bar for fueling the race!
Next Race: Homage to Ice this Saturday! Gonna be an interesting one, trails are still buried in snow!
A little bit of race day action: http://www.sportszonephotography.ca/Cycling-2014-1/Tour-of-Bronte/100PM-Elite-Race/38327280_SrW4V3#!i=3166430654&k=MLbgKwh
