2010 Callville Bay Classic
Post by Jeremy Wilson
February 26 – 28, 2010
The TT was on Friday the 26 and it was up hill 3.6 miles with 4 – 5% grade with a kicker of 7% grade at the end. Names like Robert Shaw and Ryan La Pier were racing in Cat3. Shaw was the guy who won the TT and GC at VOS. His time was 31:11 at VOS. La Pier finished 4th in the GC at VOS and second in the RR. There were 56 starters for the day. I finished 37th. I dropped my chain near 3 miles into the race. When I looked over the power data I had to lost power for 15 seconds. I took me 3 seconds to get back up to power. I was a little disappointed but I knew the road race the next day would settle things.
The RR was brutal with steady winds, temps in the 40’s, and intermittent rain, let’s face it was mostly rain. The race started with the same up hill climb that was the TT. As a group, I believed we ascended faster up that climb then I did in the TT. I just sat in the middle of the pack and enjoyed the draft. The race continued on an undulating road with some long steep climbs. The race leaders were relentless. On the way north I was dropped about a half mile from the top of the first big climb. I didn’t panic and continue to ride strong to the top. I was telling my self “I could get back on if they just eased a little.” Plus, I was doing 420 watts when I was dropped. That’s 5.3 / kg for me. I knew they couldn’t hold that for much longer. I think the only thing that really rattled me was when the wheel truck passed. It’s as if they are saying “Oh, he’s off. He won’t get back on.” F— that! I hammered on the down side, through the slight flat, and passing the wheel truck back in the pack. I stopped pedaling once I was in the middle of the pack which was down to about 35 riders. The same shenanigans continue from the turn around heading south. This time I just watched for the head bobbles and was on it with any little acceleration. Somewhere about 40 miles into the race some guy took a flyer.The pack didn’t chase until the south turn around about 10 miles left. It was fast. I wasn’t up front during the turn around and that was a mistake. I ended up getting gapped, the wheel truck coming around, and me saying “F—!” No way was I going to be dropped 10 miles from the finish after working my ass off to stay on. I ended up dragging 5 others back up to the pack. I received a couple of thank you’s and one guy who told me I just saved his race. It felt fair enough to hear “thank you” but in all honesty I didn’t care who I was dragging back up. I just wanted to get back to the pack. We ended up catching the guy who took the flyer. Then two others managed to attack and stay off until the end. One guy was 29 seconds up the road and the other was 4 seconds. I ended up 26 in the pack. There were 52 finishers & 4 DNF’s.
The next day’s criterium was uninteresting. Only 46 guys showed up to race. 5 guys total were popped off and it was a group finish. One crash and of course it was on the last turn into the finish. I ended up 32nd and 25th on the GC.
