Calabogie race report; Ivey solos to victory

On Sunday, the Calabogie Motorsports Park hosted the first Ontario Cup series race of the year. Derrek Ivey (Wheels of Bloor/Graywood Development) won the elite men’s race in dominating fashion. He broke away from a group of four riders to win the day by almost a minute. Derrick St John (Silber Pro Cycling) won the sprint for second ahead of Jack Burke (Team NCCH/Dec Express).

The 111km elite men’s race was highly aggressive. The riders were attacking constantly and it seemed as though no break was going to stick. Every effort was thwarted once it reached 15-20secs. After 75km the elastic broke and a break containing Ivey, Burke, St John, Bayden Pritchard (Octto-Cervelo), Fredric Cossette (Zoom Devinci) and Bruce Bird (Wheels of Bloor/Graywood Development) finally formed. Ivey and Burke were late getting to the move but once there the final selection of the day began.

The break road together, establishing a lead despite the main field working in a relatively coordinated fashion. The gap was as little as 30 seconds, however in the end the peloton finished over two minutes behind. Ivey was clearly on another level and literally dropped everyone. “With three laps to go, it was time to find that place, a place to forget about the pain and enjoy what’s going on around you,” said Ivey. “Lap by lap I gained about 20sec on the break, until I rolled in (for the win) 50 seconds ahead.” Clearly Ivey had strong legs. Other protagonists of the day’s racing were less thrilled with the result. “We brought it (the break) back to within 30 seconds and a chase group bridged across and after that the peloton rode the rest of the race complacently after all of our work” said Stephen Welsh of TEAM RACE. It was clearly a tactical battle and in the end Ivey proved to be the strongest and savviest on Sunday.

In the women’s race, Jamie Gilgen (Realdeal/Gears P/B Waspcam) won ahead of Carrie Cartmill (Stevens – The Cyclery) and Kael Deverell (Forest City Velodrome). The ladies raced 76km over the same circuit, that was both undulating and technical in certain sections. The top three ladies were clearly in a class of their own as they finished over four minutes ahead of the rest of the 16 rider field.

The next major stop on the OCA Calendar is the Good Friday Road Race on April 18. Full results of Calabogie’s entire race are available.

— Canadian Cycling Mag (@CDNCyclingMag) April 14, 2014