Canada, Eh...

Kevin Mullervy
Jul 17, 2014
3 min read

This year the team has been very fortunate to race some international races and this past week we raced in Canada for a week in Delta and Vancouver. Its always nice to travel somewhere new and do some new races and race against guys you normally don’t see every weekend. We seem to get stuck in a rhythm here in the USA doing the same race year after year with the same exact course so its nice for the mind to race a new race. Racing started Friday with the Tour de Delta part of the BC super week. It consisted of two crits Friday and Saturday and Sunday was a UCI Road race. Fridays crit was one of the fastest crits of the whole week, it was a rectangle with the start finish downhill and the back side uphill. It was single file the whole race, guys were fresh and attacking non stop. Our goal was to be aggressive and show everyone we were here to race and not sit in. In the end Gavi ended 11th on the day.

Saturday was a crit in a more of a downtown setting with a bigger crowd and flat. It was know from the gun that nothing was going to go away. I floated the front and covered some dangerous moves just incase that slim possibility a crash split the field or something slipped away, the other three guys floated in the field staying safe and saving energy. We set up the lead out for Conor and he was able to get 5th.

Sunday was the UCI road race and we went in it with realistic expectations and knowing we had to stay safe for the remainder of the week. Since we only race crits we never get the chance to race a road race or let alone train properly for it as we are racing every single weekend. It was cloudy and raining all day and it was a fast course around the neighborhood, very similar to a crit with many turns but a lot longer. We had some bad luck when Conor and Gavi hit the deck when they got caught up in a crash on the fast decent. With that wiping out half our team Drew and I still tried cover the major moves and heavy hitters. It was nonstop attacking and with about 13 miles to go we both used all our bullets to contend for the win.

Monday was a rest day so just some easy spinning. Tuesday was a crit on UBC University campus, it had a 180 degree turn after the start/finish into a square and then back. There was 100 starters and only 30 finishers so that may give you an idea of how hard it was and unfortanlly that 180 degree turn claimed many victims that day. We made sure to stay near the front and stay out of harms way but you never knew when someone was going to cross wheels in that nasty turn. In the remanding laps Isaac and I were well positioned behind UHC but of course a crash with 2 laps to go separated us and I ended being the last guy through. So I was in good poison in the final lap but another crash 3 corners to go taking out four guys made me come to a complete stop and had 3 guys pass me before I got up to speed and ended 11th.

Wednesday was the big Gastown Crit with it being the highest paid crit in North America, many teams sat out the earlier races just to be fresh for this hard cobblestone crit. 130 starters was a bit dicy with the first corner almost being a 180 degree turn. UHC was not letting anything up the road no matter how many attacks everyone made on them. Unfortunately we had Isaac crash in turn one over halfway through and many of the guys could feel the work they put in earlier in the week. We fought really hard and tried making something happen but in the end Isaac was top 15. We were a bit disappointed in the night but we all raced with everything we had left in the tank and made the race hard. Then Thursday morning was an all day travel to Boise Idaho for the twilight race Saturday night. A lot of racing in a week, our own little crit tour.