Spring Classics, Round Three

Spring Campaign 2017

Spring is here, the highlight of my season and my ambitions. The Spring races are my favorites of the whole year; the cold, the rain, and carnage are all on the menu during the first races of the year. After doing my final prep at the team base in Spain we headed to Belgium for what would be a long 3 months of racing. First thing was to turn our ‘training legs’ into 'race legs’.

There is only one way to get used to racing, and that is to race, and our first race was not an easy one. The Ghent Wevelgem U23 Nations Cup was a big target for me, but it being the first race it was a lot to take on as my first race. It was 180 km with lots of wind and short climbs near the end. I was having trouble with the high accelerations during the race. Combined with a poorly timed flat tire in the crosswinds made up the deciding factors of the race for me. I was the only of member of team Canada to finish that day, a terrible result but it was hard fought but I knew there was more to come.

Next up we decided to go to a short, two day, three stage race in Northern France. This is where my legs really started to come around. The first day had two stages and I was suffering a lot, I managed the lead group both days over the short, punchy climbs. It was the second day that I knew I had good legs, they felt like they could turn the gears easier that he previous day, and it showed. When the race started to explode with 35 km to go I was in the fight. Constant attacks were going and I even put in a few of my own. Eventually I found myself in a lead group of five, and we were pulling away from all the chasers. On the last lap going up the 1500m climb on the circuit, a very strong ex-WorldTour rider put in a big move and the other three riders were all on the limit to stay with him. He eventually pulled away meter by meter and the rest of us got over the top nearly side by side going as hard as we could. We chased but eventually saw the win slipping away and started to fight for the podium spots. As we rolled towards the downhill finish I put in a slingshot attack from the back of the group and tried to get away but they got my wheel with a few hundred meters to go and I ended up leading out the sprint.

I finished last of the group and was pretty upset with that. It was not all bad news as I ended the day fifth overall and with the best young riders jersey, things were coming along nicely as we build up towards my biggest goal of the Tour of Flanders Nation Cup.

Flanders was and will always be my favourite race, and I surprised myself with how relaxed I was on the morning of the race. The parcours (race route and profile) were the hardest that we had seen for the race in a number of years. We did a pre-ride of the race course with Antionne D one of our Canadian WorldTour riders and he said that he had never seen such a hard edition for the U23’s.

I started at the back and was looking to save some mental energy by not fighting for position during the first hour of racing. Once the neutral section ended the pace did not really pick up, I was a little surprised but looking back on it a lot of riders were afraid of how hard the final part of the race was so they were too nervous to use any energy. I was totally okay with the situation as the peloton rolled quite slowly toward Geraardsbergen. We were on approach to the Muur and I was starting to move up. Next to me a New Zealand rider just reached back for some food from his pocket as the road surface changed from tarmac to the classic Belgian concrete slabs (much like our sidewalks but worse) he lost control and plowed into me at 45 kp/h. In total just 6 of us went down, but I was pretty beat up. My bike was broken and so I was waiting for the car, it wasn’t until I was going again that I started to take stock of my condition. My bibs were all but gone on my left side and had a stream of blood running down my leg.

This being the highlight of my season, quitting did not cross my mind. I spent over 30km in the caravan behind the Canada car to catch up to the peloton again, using a ton of energy. The rest of the day was damage control for me. The lead group formed after the famous double header of the Oude Kwaremont, quickly followed by the Paterberg. I was not in a good position after a pile up at the bottom of the Kwaremont caused the peloton to stop again. Afterwards it was full gas and I was missing just a little bit of power, just 20 meters or so over the top of the Paterberg to be with the lead group of 25 that went on to contest the race. This was a day to forget for me, it wasn’t easy though, because my wounds had me limping for many days and will be leaving many scars.

Those were some of the highlights of my early Spring campaign. I could write a book by now, maybe that is in my future but for now, short descriptions will have to do. Thanks for reading.

Edward W