By Robert Starrs
I would say that the Grey County road race was one of the hardest races that I have ever done. Not because it was 130km (my longest race yet), but because of the course and issues that came up. I consider myself decent at hill climbing but when we finished the race on one of the hardest hills in the whole course, I had nothing left in my legs and I fell off the group. Unfortunately I had to catch the main group twice during the race, the first time was not because of a good reason; I needed use the washroom. When I got going and was trying to catch the group, the support vehicles that are meant to help did nothing, I guess taking a bio break is not the same as getting a mechanical. The second time I fell off was on the hill that goes up to Banks; this was right after I caught the group the first time. Since I used up a lot of energy to get back on I didn’t have the strength to stay with the main group going up the hill. At the top I managed to get into a small group with a DEC Express rider, an Ottawa rider and a Next Wave rider. We worked hard to catch back on, after a really hard effort we managed to get back in once we reached Ravena. This all happened on the first lap and I felt drained; luckily for me the second half of the race was not as intense as the first lap. Zach and Hayden from Wheels of Bloor both took off halfway through the second lap, this lead to their first and second place at the finish, the reason is because no one felt like going after them, this tends to happen a lot. Overall it was a fun race and I learned from it.
I would say that the Grey County road race was one of the hardest races that I have ever done. Not because it was 130km (my longest race yet), but because of the course and issues that came up. I consider myself decent at hill climbing but when we finished the race on one of the hardest hills in the whole course, I had nothing left in my legs and I fell off the group. Unfortunately I had to catch the main group twice during the race, the first time was not because of a good reason; I needed use the washroom. When I got going and was trying to catch the group, the support vehicles that are meant to help did nothing, I guess taking a bio break is not the same as getting a mechanical. The second time I fell off was on the hill that goes up to Banks; this was right after I caught the group the first time. Since I used up a lot of energy to get back on I didn’t have the strength to stay with the main group going up the hill. At the top I managed to get into a small group with a DEC Express rider, an Ottawa rider and a Next Wave rider. We worked hard to catch back on, after a really hard effort we managed to get back in once we reached Ravena. This all happened on the first lap and I felt drained; luckily for me the second half of the race was not as intense as the first lap. Zach and Hayden from Wheels of Bloor both took off halfway through the second lap, this lead to their first and second place at the finish, the reason is because no one felt like going after them, this tends to happen a lot. Overall it was a fun race and I learned from it.