Kitchener Grand Prix Twilight Crit

[Bradford]

Friday, June 19 - Downtown Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Winslow, Tyler, Meghan and myself loaded up the Volkswagon (four bikes, one roof), and made the pilgrimage northeast to the Toronto area for a weekend of racing and riding.

The Kitchener Grand Prix Crit took place in downtown Kitchener on a 0.6 mile loop around city hall. The course was lined with barriers, beer gardens, and spectators - had a great atmosphere and pro feel. Four 90 degree corners with a punchy uphill down one side, made for a pretty technical course with an emphasis on hitting the right lines through the turns. The short laps meant you had little recovery time from all of the hard acceleration efforts out of the course.

Winslow, Tyler and I lined up in the 'intermediate' race - there was everything from Cat 4s to Cat 2s in this one due to the blanketed categorization. 70 or so starters day of, and several teams with 8 or more riders (Centurion, National Cycling Center Hamilton etc.).

In crit fashion, the pace was explosive right out of the gate. I didn't get a great start missing my clip-in and was pretty far back immediately. Lap two, corner one saw the first of multiple crashes - people sliding out on the corners, and bucking bikes off of pedals. There were actually crashes on all four corners throughout the race. I saw about 6 different crashes, and I know there were crashes behind me too. Unfortunately, Tyler got caught behind one in the first 10 minutes of the race and this pretty much put him off the back, only to be pulled in his chase effort back to the field. It sounded like his group was making progress and the race official was a little quick to make the call.

I burnt a lot of matches making my way back up in a field that was difficult to work through. Once I got inside the top 10 - 15 wheels, I found myself continually responding to attacks from Centurion and NCCH - they had the numbers and tactics. Winslow ended up making his was way up too, and it was a huge relief to have some help - I was at my limit.

As the race went on, more and more people came off the back, and the final finishing group was probably 25 or so. Winslow made two massive digs to pull a breakaway back together. After the first one, he told me that that was all he had - but then a few laps later, he did it again. That engine.

This had us all together with three to go - the pace was extremely high and the field was strung out. I was a little far back, probably 10th wheel coming in to the last two corners. Some guy went down hard on the last turn, and his bike went flying - I managed to swing around it and open up my sprint into the finish, moving up and passing a number of people for 5th place. I feel like if I had myself in a better position coming out of that last turn, not starting so far back, I could have contested a bit more with the sprint, but I was pretty much at my limit.

This was a really tough race, but we had lots of fun. Great team effort on this one from the guys.

We might take a drive by of the new Toronto Velodrome and preview the Pan Am course today.

Best of luck to those racing in CT tomorrow!

[JeremyC]

Nice job guys. Sounded hard, you Canucks are CRAZYYY

[Smudger]

That sounds like a mighty impressive result.....ehh

[jraguin]

Awesome job. You top 10 every race let alone top 5.

Unfortunately, your tale of the race reminds me about crits...

[Bradford]

Thanks guys.

After reviewing the posted results, the field started with 72, and finished with 24 - so, 48 DNFs. It was pretty intense - definitely great experience for the three of us.

[jraguin]

24 of 72 finished? Whoa... not good. Crazy Canadians!

One more comment: what is "The Break"?

[Bradford]

The Break is a group of friends based out of Kitchener and Toronto that I'm encouraging (pushing) to get into cycling, and road racing. They needed a team, so we created a kit for group rides and races north of the border. We also collectively run an instagram account (@thebreakracing).

Like my experience at MRC, until you're exposed to training and racing, you don't realize what's involved. It's a big learning curve. Generally, they are interested, but can be a bit overwhelmed at times when we only really get together for things like Whiteface Mountain, Battenkill, or downtown crits!