Dan Tomczak's report on the Ecology Center Classic

May 28, 2005

Hi everyone from sunny Missoula, Montana!!

I'm here with the provincial team for a four stage road race. The pro/1/2 men consist of myself, Bradley Kerr, Rob Britton, Shawn Bunnin and Matt Walker. We also brought Ben Rempel and Dave Brooks for cat 3 and Alex Wrubleski for the Pro women. Today's stage was 160kms for the pro men and 90 kms for everyone else. There was a 7.5 mile section of gravel which the men tackled twice and everyone else once. There were a number of hot spot sprints and king of the mountains points to be had throughout the stage.

In the men's race we planned on getting to the front for the gravel and doing our thing. Let me tell you people, I've never seen such a beautiful display of force from the team Sask pain train. We hit the front ~4km from the gravel and strung it out at 45+km/hr. Once we hit the gravel we drove the pack at >41km/hr and had people falling off the back. Then the shit hit the fan. Rob and I started a huge acceleration when we heard what we all fear. Rob had a flat. The wheel vehicle was way back helping someone else. Brad, Shawn and myself waited for him and started the chase. We jammed it at 43+km/hr till we got back on and were all tired and pissy. The first time up the feed zone climb saw me fall off from the effort on the gravel and I ended up spending the next ~115kms on my own. Matt got a flat just at the end of the gravel but we all got on. Matt got a flat the second time through the gravel and couldn't get back on. Brad came off on the second feed zone climb and both of them finished strong. Rob and Shawn were left and after winning the 4th KOM sprint, a break was initiated which included himself and Rob that the winner would come from. Rob turned the screws on the finishing climb (a cat 3 climb at that!) and took Phil Abbott from Alberta and an American with him. Rob ended up getting second. He had a slow front leak so he just hammered it in to get time on everyone else and didn't contest the sprint. Shawn ended up 4th, 59seconds back. Tomorrow's TT and circuit race are going to be very interesting and will involve lots of teamwork to secure the overall (which is now well within our grasp).

The cat 3 race was touch and go with Ben getting an early flat and Dave coming off on the feed zone climb. Dave got 11th and Ben 26th.

The ride of the day goes to Alex who won the women's road race in a two-up sprint. The highlight of her finish was that she sprinted from the drops standing up!!!! Looks like Rob's sprinting lessons have paid off.

There is a good chance that Saskatchewan could come home back with BOTH the pro men and the pro women overall titles this weekend. I think this year (and the next few years to come) are going to be heydays for Saskatchewan cycling. We are showing that the time and money put into our development is well worth it and I hope that the SCA will continue with it's support.

Until tomorrow.

Daniel

May 30

Stages 2 and 3 are down. Things have changed but moral is still high. Our cat 3's rode solid TT's and Dave got 2nd in the circuit race, congrats to the Dave. Alex didn't have the greatest TT and moved down into 3rd in GC. Alex finished in the pac in the circuit race.

The pro men's category saw Rob hold down his 2nd place overall after losing 30 seconds to Phil Abbott. Shawn moved into 5th. The circuit race was a very tactical one for the team. Since the gc is essentially wrapped up with Phil having a strong team to support him we decided to work on the points and KOM jerseys. After bringing back a break on the first lap, I managed to rack up the second place hot spot points and Shawn got first. Shortly thereafter Brad made it into the winning move for the day. Our plan was to have a man in any break to ensure that we can maximize points. Brad made three sprints and I believe we've got the sprint jersey now. In order to get Shawn into a position to take the stage win, Matt and I made strong efforts to bring the break back since Brad had essentially secured the jersey. On the last lap the break was coming back fast and I made a strong effort but just barely missed the acceleration on the last KOM hill. The break didn't come back but Brad managed 4th in the finale.

Tomorrow's miss and out crit is going to be INSANE!!! We are planning on going for all the points sprints and leading out for the cash primes.

Until tomorrow!!!

Daniel

June 1

Hi to all who have been reading my race reports. We're all back safe and sound after a great weekend. Let me recap the crit and the overall results.

Alex went into the Pro women's crit in 3rd place and rode a solid race winning primes but unfortunately lost count of the number of riders in her pack and was the last woman pulled. She managed to hold onto her 3rd place and I'm sure learned some valuable lessons about race nutrition and reading the race bible!!!

In the cat 3 race, Ben and Dave finished in the main pack after putting in solid efforts. Dave won a prime and initiated a break that didn't manage to stick. Both of these riders had great weekends and definitely got stronger as the race progressed.

Now onto the race I'm partial to because it was ours. The pro men raced 10 laps after which the last rider every time across the line would be pulled. Brad was leading the sprint competition and with two points sprints being offered (on laps 3 and 5) we needed to get him the points or at least prevent 2nd place from garnering them. I lead out the first lap to keep the pace high and prevent an early breakaway. Crit racing in the US is INSANE. They called either a cash, product or points prime on every lap for the first 6 laps. After this they were calling them at least every 2 laps until the miss-and-out began. We managed to save the sprint jersey which Brad won!!!!!

On the 6th lap I sprinted for a prime and managed to build a huge gap over the line. Per Strom from Alberta followed me and we started what would be the day's winning breakaway. Two other riders bridged up and we quickly built our gap to 1 minute over the rest of the pack. One of the other riders was from the Lombardi team in California which is a very strong elite team. He had spent 5 years in Belgium and was taking another kick at it in the US. Needless to say I was happy to be in the break. The other guys weren't so happy since I was stealing all the money primes for our team. Eventually they had enough and started gapping me off the back. This much was expected and I was content with the 4 primes I had won for our team.

So, the final damage: 2nd in team competition, 2nd and 5th in overall GC, 1st in Sprint competition (Brad), 3rd in King of the Mountains competition (Rob) and prime wins in the crit.

Everyone in the pro men's race had their day in the sun and all contributed to a great weekend. Rob and Shawn kicked it in the road race (1st and 4th!!) Brad racked up points in the winning breakaway in the circuit race, Matt was instrumental in the pack in the circuit race making EVERYONE hurt over those climbs, and I finally came around for the crit.

I'll say it one last time: TEAM SASK KICKS ASS!!!

Final results: http://www.ecologycenterclassic.org/2005.htm