Canadian Road National Championships, July 7-10, 2005
For results, visit http://www.roadnationals.com

Criterium, Friday, July 8
Last Friday I drove to Kamloops and hopped on my road bike for my first road race of the season: The Canadian Criterium National Championships. Normally by mid-July, I have around 10 road races under my belt, but since I spent my pre-season mountain bike racing in Spain, I never got a chance to race road. Also take into account that crits are NOT my thing. They require leg speed, aggression, confidence in the pack and short, intense bursts of speed. As most of my friends know, I'm a little bit lacking in those areas. I blame it on the fact that I'm a mountain biker. I blame a lot of things on the fact that I'm a mountain biker....

Starting off my road season with the Crit National Championships was a definite jump into the deep end, so my biggest goal was to stay with the pack -- and I did! I'm quite pleased with my effort, since there were a lot of very strong girls in the field ( Mandy Poitras [Symmetrics], Gina Grain [Victory Brewing], Laura Yoisten [Diet Cheerwine]). I placed 30th, got my heart rate up over 200 and got my legs ready for Sunday's road race.

Road Race, Sunday, July 10
12 laps, 120 km
After a rest day on Saturday, I was ready to go (or as ready as I was going to get) for 12 laps and as many times up the 10-kilometre course's killer 3.5-kilometre climb. Luckily the weather wasn't nearly as hot as last year, when we suffered under the glaring sun in temperatures of 34+ degrees.

Although the course was the same as last year's, the race unfolded very differently. The top women didn't launch aggressive attacks off the start and the pack stayed mostly together for the first half, with smaller groups of riders getting dropped off the back. I kept to the front of the group and was always surprised to see Genevieve Jeanson (Rona) there too. I kept thinking: What's she still doing here?

Eventually though, the climb took its toll and I dropped back with a small group of women. I felt pretty strong on the climb, but I would've liked an easier gear. I don't know how I did the race with a 23-tooth cog last year! I hung in there for all 12 laps and didn't get lapped; we dropped three girls from our group of six, and my legs didn't start cramping up until the very last climb. Everything was fine until I stopped and got off my bike. My back was so sore. If I tried to move it out of its on-bike position, it was agony. Then my legs starting cramping too. I almost cried. In the shower, it took me like 10 seconds to bend over enough to reach the shampoo bottle and then I had to straighten up again, which took another 10 seconds. It was a long shower.... Ibuprofin is my best friend.

I placed 24th in the road race out of over 60 starters. Not bad for a mountain biker!

Fellow AdventureBound-er, Suzanne, launched some strong attacks and climbed like a little mountain goat. She placed 21st.

Thanks for the great race support, Steve! And thanks to the Local Ride guys (particularly Ian) for making my bike so happy and FAST!