well, today was the most anticipated race of the season, the Epping Race, which includes a 5km climb, of which there's pretty much nothing else like it anywhere in our province.

2 laps, ~40kms/lap with the finish at the top of the climb.

I started out and had problems right off the line, my HRM wasn't working. So i had to drop off the back, unzip my jersey get the contacts wet again in order to get it working. Now 200m off the back of a quickly moving race, i had to do some work to catch, thankfully it was flat, with a bit of downslope to help.

I got on, and we set out. The majority of this course was flat, or downhill, making it a super easy race IMO. I didn't turn a single pedal rev on any of the downhills, so there was tons and tons of time for recovery each lap.

The first time up the hill, i was really surprised how easily i got up it, staying with the front of the group with no trouble at all. We didn't push, but i was feeling good, especially with so much time to recover before doing it again.

somewhere along the way now Andrew Watson broke off the front of the pack, and we (his teammates) decided not to chase if nobody else was going to.

We eventually began to gain on him, so we readied ourselves for battle, we'd been holding down the peleton for 10+kms now. As we were reaching the last corner leading to the climb, we'd caught him, but nobody else had come to the front of the group.

We continued on, I ate a powergel, drank some water, dropped my bottle! thankfully i had powerade in my other bottle, so it wasn't too big a deal. Still nobody was coming to the front, at this point we're loafing along the flat section at barely 30km/h. fine with me, i'll take the recovery time :)

Then it came, Dave Viney and Andrew Watson broke off the front of the group. These two are easily the fastest in the race, so it was no surprise. Shawn Marshall of the BCC, as well as 2 OSC, and 1 Newmarket rider went with them. I thought of going, and perhaps could have stayed with them, but i knew i had a better chance of beating the rest.

Shawn wasn't able to hang with Dave and Andrew so I worked to catch him and see what was up, i could barely hold his wheel i was sucking for air so badly. We had 2 guys in front of us that we knew one or both of us could get. We got to the church which signals the top is near and Shawn told me to go for it. I wasn't sure that I could, and Shawn is a faster/more experienced rider than me, so i held back and he went, but quickly knew he couldn't hold it, he told me again to go, and i stood up, and passed him and the 2 guys for a 4th place finish.

So satisfied with the result, can't wait until the final race of the year, it's more up and down, without really any flat at all. Should suit the climber I've turned into this year!