The Opening Race Weekend in Ontario

This past weekend was the first weekend of road racing in Ontario, and it was a good one. I was happy with the results because the Jet Fuel Coffee/La Bicicletta team that I am helping run won both of the races. Our “young” guys who have been down south have come back with some superb form and put it to good use.

Anton Varabei from the team won both of the races. At the Good Friday road race he had a lot of help from the team – where incidentally we finished 1st, 3rd and 4th. But on Sunday in the Hell of the North, a Paris-Roubaix style road/dirt/trail race, he was impressive. I think he spent most of the race off the front. It was funny, he would get caught and attack again. At one point he said to me that we needed to make the race harder, that he would attack and that I could counter. Um, not so much.

For the Hell of the North I took my chances and raced it on a road bike. I figured the weather had been dry and that the off-road sections wouldn’t be too bad. Anyway, my ‘cross bike was in pieces so I had no choice. For the first-half I held my own, coming back to the group after each off-road section. On the first one I had a bit of a scare though as we were riding through some sandy sections and the road tires were sinking in and getting all squirrely. After making it through most of the tough bits I started telling the guys on their ‘cross bikes that they were in trouble, that I was still there on my road bike and that I would have the advantage heading back. You know, like in American Flyers, where the bad guy is telling his Russian opponent how he is next to him but not really because on the GC he is 2 seconds ahead. Well you’ll know what I mean if you know what I mean.

I spoke too soon though and on the long rail-to-trail section that followed soon after I came apart. My skinny 23C road tires were just narrow for the loose gravel that had been laid not too long ago. What was once a hard-packed dirt trail had become a tire sucking, never ending, leg breaker – at least for me on the road bike. All I kept thinking was when would it end. And that was it, that was my day. Kaput. Anton was also on a road bike though, and he made it with the front group so that gives you an idea of how strong he was.

And in other racing news. Last blog I was writing about Canadian over in Europe. Did you notice who was in the early break again this year at Paris-Roubaix? David Veilleux who races for Europcar. Last year he made the early break the first time he raced Roubaix and this year he did it again. Impressive. Making that early move is a race in itself.

Summer is just around the corner, if you’re not finding the motivation to get out check out a youtube link of Paris-Roubaix and get yourself pumped up!

Recently retired from professional cycling, Andrew Randell has taken up a management/rider development role with the Jet Fuel/La Bicicletta team for 2012 and opened up his coaching services to the public. Reach him at arcoaching@gmail.com.