April 26, 2018 (Calabogie Ontario) – I found myself barreling down a northern Ontario road in the Bruce-mobile, headed to a bike race, with Tragically Hip playing loud, the sun shining, the snow melting, and the ice on the lakes in full retreat. Spring was in the air. “Spring starts when a hearbeat’s poundin.”  

I lined up alongside my Wheels of Bloor/Autostyle Collision teammates Aaron Hamill, Bruce Bird and Marc-Antoine Beaudoin “out at the speedway” for the 111km Calabogie Classic, the second O-Cup road race on the calendar. Also lined up were on the order of 35 other E1/2s, most notably a full Toronto Hustle (8), Techy Kids (8) and Ascent Cycling squads (6). Also notable riders to watch were Ed Veal (Real Deal) and Adam Jamieson (Silber Pro).

Going in we knew Hustle had the firepower to dictate the race but we also knew that they’d likely mark out Veal and Jamieson so they wouldn’t feature in the finale. We also knew Ascent’s main card to play was Mark Brouwer, but they had a number of rapidly improving riders, that have been continually making breaks as well.

Our plan was for Bruce and I to follow moves until one stuck and work with Aaron and Marc-Antoine to fill in the cracks i.e. cover moves we missed and/or contribute to or poison the pace depending on the situation. Once Bruce or I were in the break we were to roll it passively until the gap was large enough that only an elite working chase group could possibly get across, which is what has happened in years past, and would hopefully bring either myself or Bruce up to the front of the race so we could shake and bake together in the finale.

The start gun went off and the usual Ontario “make the early break or die trying” began. We covered all moves well and had Aaron and I in the first major split, which was pretty much half the field, with the entire Ascent squad, probably 5/8 Hustle guys and many others. There was a 30-sec gap to the second group which had Jamieson, Bruce and Veal… until Ed suddenly showed up having bridged across. That halted the meek cooperation in the group so I sent Aaron to the front to cover the inevitable but fruitless counter attacks that started flying.

I just sat on waiting for the inevitable regroup with Bruce’s field and then he and I resumed covering of moves until around 45 mins in a big split stuck that included four Hustle riders (Bradford, Hrycaj, Simms and O’Donnell), four Ascent team members (Brouwer, Fothergill, Chambers-Bedard, and Brouillette), two Techy Kids (Adam Bird and Christian Ricci), and three lone wolves Timothy Austen (Ride w/Rendall), Zola Mehlomakulu (Independent), and myself.

We started rolling at a reasonable rate with a fair bit of commitment shown by Hustle and Ascent – which I could have predicted given no Veal or Jamieson, and me isolated from Bruce. I did my thing, rolling through passively, contributing to the pace but definitely far from driving it. The group behind us slowed right down and our gap shot up to 3 mins by around the halfway point of the race.

At this point I started missing the odd turn and trying to get an idea of what was going on behind us from the feed zone in the hope that Bruce was on his way up with a few others. Our group cohesion slowly degraded, and the Hustle vs Ascent vs everyone else triple-threat match began with about 50km remaining. The sheer size of our break, its composition, and the non-selective course kept the pace actually reasonably high despite the lack of cooperation: pretty much non-stop attacks came from Hustle and Ascent.

If numbers were lopsided for one of them the out-numbered team would chase down the move, and if they were even strength one of the other riders in the break would chase it down (this was me on more than one occasion). There was always someone to attack and always someone to chase. As a result, the gap back to the second group barely shrunk as the kilometers ticked by. With about 35 km remaining and the gap sat at around 2:50 and I realized that Bruce was likely not coming and it would be up to me to scrap for a result.

Mark Brouwer (Ascent) had been quite active attacking and trying to get away from the break – it made sense given his team support plus the fact that Trevor O’Donnell (Hustle) was here, so if it came down to a sprint Mark and his Ascent squad would be out of luck. I figured that my best shot was to a) continue letting Hustle and Ascent try to kill each other, b) work with my ad-hoc non Hustle/Ascent teammates to shut down threatening moves, and c) look for an opportunity to get away with Mark if possible.

With 25km to go on the headwind false flat such an opportunity presented itself as Brouwer threw in a serious attack with me on his wheel. He flicked his elbow and I pulled through without a word or a look back. After about 45 seconds driving as hard as I could, I flicked Mark through, dropped back to his wheel and stole a glance. We had made a HUGE gap to the break but two riders, Brad Bradford (Hustle) and Adam Bird (Techy Kids), were desperately trying to get across to us.

The next three kilometers determined how the race was won. Mark and I both realized that while Brad and Adam were trying to bridge, Techy Kids, Hustle and Ascent back in the break weren’t gonna chase. If we could keep Brad and Adam suffering in no-man’s land without catching us, they’d likley stop cooperating and drift back to the break. Once there Hustle and Techy Kids would go full chase panic but with less than 25 km and limited firepower remaining Mark and I could likely hold them off. So without communicating Brouwer and I rode the next lap like a 2-up, 5km TT – full gas, full commitment.

Brad and Adam came within five seconds of catching us – it was so so close – but they didn’t. So with ~20 km to go Mark and I settled into a working rhythm to finish the job at hand. Pull hard for 60-90 seconds; sit on Mark’s wheel for 60-90 seconds. Repeat ad nauseam. I was pretty far into the box at this point and not really thinking of doing anything in the finale other than trusting my sprint. With about two laps to go I noticed Mark’s pulls got a little weaker – I found myself really recovering on his wheel – at least far more so than before. I actually started to feel pretty good.

With one lap to go the time gap to the chase was only 30 seconds – nowhere near enough time to mess around. We continued the status quo trading pulls but I could tell Mark was starting to crack. I put in a solid long pull on the false flat headwind section and flicked Mark to pull through, which he did. I could hear him breathing. I sat on his wheel as we rounded the corner to a tailwind section, then hit him as hard as I could on the first uphill ramp I could find. So with ~3 km to go, I just kept my head down and rode as hard as I could to the finishing straight. On the final straight I had some time to celebrate/savour. Nice!

Mark limped in for second place at 19 seconds down and just behind a charging O’Donnell sprinted his way onto the final step of the podium.

It was really great to snag a win after so many podiums the last couple seasons. Hopefully there are more to come this year between myself and our stalwart Wheels of Bloor squad.

Full results here.
More Robert Roaldi photos here.