Canal Classic
Written by: Bill
I woke up to the sound of the rocky theme playing on my phone because I set it for my alarm to wake me up. I was running on 4 and a half hours of sleep (1:30am-6am) but surprisingly I wasn’t really that tired. We departed at 7:45 and arrived at 9:15ish. I quickly registered and got dressed. I also switched my junior gearing out from the other day. I then found Jake (another junior) and we started it warm up. You see I already felt warmed up because I was racing 15 hours before this race haha. I was feeling like crap and I went back to the car to take my underarmor top off. I then ate some power gel gummy type things and I gave some to Jake to try out. We then went back up to the finishing line and turned around to go to where we were going to start. Andy Ross called me over and told us to stay as a team through the start because it would get a little squirrelly. The race director told us it was a controlled start and we wouldn’t go more than 12mph or so. Andy was like “yeah right” to me and told me they’ve went fast at the beginning in recent years.
We started off and I got stuck in the pack a little bit until I saw an opening and rode up to the front with the rest of the team. We started to climb a hill and I was feeling a little better. I was going a little too hard and Andy reminded me to not go too hard up this hill. So I backed off and grabbed his wheel. We crested the hill and we then sped up. There was around 40 or so riders still with us and we thinned out to 2 wide as we reached speeds of 27-30mph. Jake had junior gearing on so I got up next to him and asked him how the gears were because he was spinning out. He said “GREAT!!” and we both laughed. I asked him where this KOM hill was and he said we go through a town and it starts right after we get out of it. I then moved up toward Andy Ross as he opened a gap in our group. I stuck on his wheel and then we encountered a pretty decent hill I asked Andy how long this hill was and he told me “oh not long only around a half mile”. We hit the hill and I went up to the front and rode tempo at around 11-12mph. We reached the top and I felt great. Andy then proceeded to pass me. He then accelerated down hill and I got onto his wheel. We then hit a semi-flat section and I asked Jake where the KOM hill was. He told me we would go into a town and then it was right after we left the town. Andy accelerated down the hill and others grabbed his wheel. We got into the town, made a right turn, and hit a 25 yard hill.After cresting this little hill I looked up the road and I saw it winding up at around 5-7%. I then grabbed a wheel and tried to ride my own tempo again. They were going slightly faster up this hill (12ish) so I had to work a little harder. We then reached a flattish section and I asked Andy if that was the top and he said “No we are around halfway done”. He then told me that he would give me a hand signal when we were reaching the top. A few minutes later someone crashed behind us and we were worried it was Jeff Hoover but then Jeff told us he was still with us and we continued riding.There were around 10 guys with us in the lead group by this time. We encountered the final uphill section and Andy gave me the hand signal. Halfway up the hill a guy took off and Jake followed. I was kinda blocked in but I managed to get out. I was catching up with Jake and the other guy when I noticed Jake’s glasses were on the ground. I got in front of the guy chasing Jake and slowed up, and Jake took the $100 KOM hill prime. I caught up with him and so did the others. I then told him that the $100 should go toward his new glasses haha. We had a downhill section and Andy took off and I grabbed his wheel. He then powered through the rolling section of the course. He was really hammering and I had a hard time holding his wheel. We had a nice 4 or 5 second gap but were eventually caught. We then went onto a gravel paved road and there were a few rollers on it but everyone managed to stay together. We then reached a flat section on top of a hill and it started to downpour. My glasses fogged up and I couldn’t see very well. We then got back onto a paved road and it was raining harder than before and as an added bonus there was lightning! We then encountered a hill and Jake attacked. I Thought he was trying to establish a break so I tried to catch up with him and a few guys passed me and I grabbed their wheel. We eventually caught him and I was like “Hey what was that for??(jokingly)
“. He said he had enough of getting water in his face so he wanted to get out of it. We then powered along and Andy took over the front stringing everyone out into a line. Jeff was behind him and I was behind Jeff (GO MAXPOWER lol). We then exchanged some pulls until we reached the turn into the finish. Andy was in front and I was behind him. I started to brake for the turn and I wasn’t slowing down that much. Some guy was off to the side yelling “SLOW DOWN!!!!!” I ignored him and took the turn at around 20 or so. I past Andy and looked back because there was 200 Meters to go. I was right in front of Andy and the rest of the group was about 2 bikes behind him. I then saw the finish line and started to half sprint. I looked back and saw I had a pretty good lead then started all out sprinting. I saw FINISH and looked under to see if anyone was there. I saw no one and crossed the line in First place. I was extremely happy.
We rode down and gave our chips to a girl and she threw them in a bucket. I then got dressed and went down to to registration tent where I saw all the trophy and stuff. Pretty cool. I then talked with Andy for a while about the race. They then started the Awards Ceremony and I received my trophy. We then got a picture of Andy, Jeff, and I holding our trophies. We then packed up and went home.
It was a great race and I had a lot of fun doing it!
-Bill Golembieski