Coupes des Ameriques Race Recap C division
By Philip Beliveau
Well the dust has settled on another Coupe and I am currently eating and drinking my way out of race weight. Here is my story and I am sticking to it.
The prologue hill climb started on a lovely evening for pain and fresh pavement into Sutton from the border and the start of the climb. A few attacks went with the last reeled in at the base of the climb. The pack strung out as the lead guys ratcheted up the pace until there were 6 guys left at the base of the switchbacks near the top. Three in front made a surge into the switchbacks that I could not follow as I was red-lined but I held my pace and the two left with me faded leaving me to suffer in for fourth. Good enough.
The next morning I had a less then stellar time trial to drop to 7th. Boohoo!
That afternoon we did 3 laps of a circuit with a good but not super steep hill and screaming downhill. 3rd and 5th place on GC went on a break and were reeled in after one lap. 5th place got dropped on the last time up the hill and lost 2-3 minutes and so I moved back up to 6th!
That evening after driving home to be with my honeys, I sat in the coldest bath I could run for 5 minutes to calm my legs. I was still rolling around in bed that night with leg cramps for what felt like the whole night.
The next morning I arrived feeling pretty good for the start of the road race under overcast skies. I tried a couple of breaks and then sat in to conserve for the big hill near the end. Two guys got away. One was caught at the base of the climb and the other halfway up. The steepest pitch was at the base of the climb. I moved to the front so I would not have to make up any gaps. I was pretty close to my max but stayed with the lead guys.
As the climb hit the first shelf the pace eased and a couple of danglers caught back on. With the one from the break we were 11 as we rolled over the top. Foolishly I had not checked the results from yesterdays circuit race and did not know that the guy in 5th had gotten dropped and I had moved up to 6th. When I realized that guy was not in the lead group, I hit the front to keep the pace up and gain as much time in the hopes of moving up on GC.
We rolled into town and finished on a 500 meter big ring uphill. Ouch! 3 guys had jumped clear to get 3 seconds, 3 dropped off and I hung on to the main 5 for same time and 6th on GC. All in all a satisfying race except for missing the camaraderie of my 50+ teammates Bob and Bruce!
