On a mild, if not overcast, day in Maple Ridge a strong team of Red Truck Racing’s finest (Amiel Flett-Brown, Declan Kelly, Alex Fraser-Maraun, Kyle Buckosky, Dan Fraser-Maraun, Al Murison, Campbell Parrish, Cole Glover, Luke Hubner) lined up at the start of the Thornhill Circuit Race. The previous day Barry Lyster had promised sun, and so there was... sort of. Well, if not the presence of sun, at least the absence of rain. Still, a bite in the air meant the pre-race lathering of layer upon layer of embrocation until our legs gleamed so bright it was as if the sun was out.
Thornhill Circuit is a course characterized by a nasty, pitchy, 2-2.5 min climb at 8.6%. For me that meant anywhere from 5.8wkg to 7wkg for 2-2.5 mins at the start of each of the (14) 6km circuits. Organized by Barry Lyster’s Local Ride Racing, the race was similar to a Western European Kermesse, with fast, short laps making for hard, aggressive racing.
With such a strong team, and such a selective parcours, we knew that it was in our interest to simply ensure that we stacked the breakaway that would undoubtedly form at some point. Indeed, after an attack-laden first 1.5 laps, the entire team working together to follow moves, myself and Campbell found ourselves in a group with five other strong riders. For those interested in power numbers, in order to make this break I averaged 440W for the first 8 mins of the race, and normalized 450W for the first 15 mins.
I distinctly recall at one point after finishing a pull, looking over at Campbell and asking him how he was doing. “I feel great, thanks”, he said with a smile, “how are you?”. Always polite, Campbell, even 40 km into a challenging race. It was at that moment, looking around at the rest of the break, several with mouths hanging open and suffering, that I knew just how strong this team was and how lucky I was to be a member of it.
Though Campbell and I were confident in our own abilities to win the race, being outnumbered in the break meant that we didn’t want to kill ourselves, instead doing the bare minimum knowing that at some point our strong teammates back in the peloton would bridge over giving us odds in the break. That did indeed happen, with Alex Fraser-Maraun obliterating the field up the climb, excepting a select few including Al Murison. Al then dug deep over the top to do his best to bridge Alex over to us in the break. Alex made good on Al’s effort, finishing the bridge and turning the tide of the break firmly in Red Truck’s favour.
With 40km to go, and the news of an opponent’s teammate attempting to bridge across to us, I decided to test the waters up the climb with the first real attack of the break. I put out 585W for nearly two minutes and found myself with a small gap by the top. I kept pushing over the top and after a lap the gap was 25 seconds... then 45 seconds... by the end of the race I’d won by over a minute.
Back in the break, Alex and Campbell worked hard to ensure that any attempts to attack across to me were neutralized, finishing off the race with Alex opening up his sprint early as a leadout for Campbell. Campbell returned the favour by producing a formidable sprint (20sec at 1230W) to secure the 2nd podium spot. Alex, even after his own massive effort, came across the line in 4th.
Back in what remained of the peloton the rest of the Red Truck lads rolled it in having worked hard to control the group for the entire race.
Top notch teamwork by Red Truck Racing saw us claim 1st, 2nd, and 4th place, and gave us hope and confidence for more to come as we prepare for bigger races later in the season.